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It is well documented that the wards of Cliftonville West and Margate Central rank amongst the most deprived wards nationally. The profile of these two wards provides some explanation and background as to the links between the deprivation and the difficulties in dealing with the issues associated with this area. The following information provides indicative evidence of a much wider problem across the two wards where the combined effect of all these issues have led to an area that is suffering from high levels of crime and anti social behaviour, and a lack of cohesion in the community with a negative impact on the community and public services.
There are approximately 12,300 people living in the two wards. The population in the area is particularly transient with more than 30% of residents moving in and out of the area on an annual basis. (Total Place project 2009 Final report 19th February 2010 and Census 2001)
In October 2009, the Housing Regeneration Team at Thanet District Council began a pro-active programme of inspection called ‘Your Home, Your Health’. There are two main aims of the project and these are as a referral mechanism for residents to access services they might not normally access and to collect data about the area and the households living in the area. This programme involves the systematic inspection of all properties in the proposal area, one street at a time. This programme is currently on going and has provided valuable data on the properties in the area. The project has highlighted that more than 80% of residents in the survey area are not originally from Thanet. Around 21% are from elsewhere in Kent, 43% are from elsewhere in the UK and 19% are from outside of the UK.
Given the transient nature of the residents makes it is difficult to establish a comprehensive understanding of local needs and to make a lasting impact by tailoring services to meet those needs.
In particular providing health care to vulnerable individuals and promoting healthy lifestyles is a challenge. This community has a high concentration of people with mental health problems as well as long term health issues such as cardio-vascular disease, cancer and heart disease living in the area. (Total Place project 2009 Final report 19th February 2010)
Poor health is manifest in the fact that life expectancy at birth for males in Cliftonville West is 69.2 years, 18 years lower than the best rate in the county. The average life expectancy in Margate Central is 72.7 tears (2004-2008 pooled data) 7 years shorter than the best in Kent. (Total Place project 2009 Final report 19th February 2010).
A disproportionate number of people in Cliftonville West receive health related benefits including 9.4% in receipt of Disability Living Allowance and 18.5% in receipt of Incapacity Benefit, this is the second worst in Kent, the first being Margate Central. Incapacity Benefit claims relating to residents with a mental health issue and /or behavioural disorders account for 53.7% of claims in Cliftonville West.
There is a concerning level of mental health needs in the local population confirmed by the fact that a third of (34%) of all GP referrals in Thanet to secondary mental health services emanate from these two wards.
Worklessness is an endemic feature of the area and Margate Central ranks seventh nationally in welfare dependency at 63%. Of the working age population 39% of people in the two wards are without gainful activity. (Total Place project 2009 Final report 19th February 2010).
Family poverty is also linked to the above mentioned issues and is a significant feature in the community. 15% of Thanet’s Children’s Social Services casework is undertaken in these two wards. This includes a disproportionate number requiring statutory intervention. (Total Place project 2009 Final report 19th February 2010).
It is well documented that Thanet experiences high levels of placement of Looked after Children from out of the area, as well as supporting its own considerable numbers of vulnerable children and young people. In Kent there are 2,948 Looked After Children (LAC). This figure is made up of 1,195 Kent children, of which 264 are placed in Thanet and 25 are placed in these two wards. Kent also supports 9,876 children under Section 17 (Children In Need). 1,000 of these children are in Thanet, with 155 placed in these two wards.
Of the 2036 school aged pupils in the area, 53 (2.6%) have a Statement of Special Educational Needs. This represents 9.2% of all Thanet’s children with a Statement (678).
There is evidence of considerably higher than average poor school attendance and exclusions among children and young people living in Margate Central and Cliftonville West. This in turn can lead to an increase in minor crime and anti social behaviour and a risk of deteriorating behaviour in the community. Within the two wards (Cliftonville West and Margate Central), the Kent Youth Offending Service has 87 customers annually, 17% of the Thanet total. Cliftonville West is the worst ward for youth offending in Kent accounting for 15% of youth crime in the district.
Older people living in the private rented sector and in residential care provision in the two wards represent another fragile group requiring support to prevent risk of harm. There are over 200 people who receive significant Adult Social Care services including 140 elderly, 60 with learning disabilities and 13 with physical disabilities. There are 98 units of accommodation, funded through Supporting People, in the area, equivalent to 26% of the Thanet total of 434. In total, there are 10 accommodation-based service providers providing 98 units, of which 5 providers are for people with learning disabilities (35 units), 3 providers are for people with Mental Health Problems (20 units), 1 provider for young people at risk (23 units) and 1 provider for homeless families. (Total Place project 2009 Final report 19th February 2010)
One of the main distinguishing features of this area and arguably at the heart of the problem is the over-supply of mainly substandard private rented accommodation. Work through the ‘Your Home, Your Health’ project has identified that in some streets more than 80% of the properties are privately rented. The average for privately rented property in Thanet is 28.5% which is still very high compared to a national average of 14%. This is a symptom of the current housing market and the high levels of people on means tested benefits that are unable to access the housing market. Despite the house prices having recently reduced and the value of property in Cliftonville West being particularly low, the area is more attractive to investment landlords with a demand for low rent accommodation rather than owner occupiers.
45% of properties are in single-person households and this is largely due to the number of small flats and HMOs. This type of accommodation has an impact on the diversity of the community with less family accommodation available which in turn leads to a higher density of the population with some overcrowding issues. The high level of rented property means that the level of home ownership has reduced significantly with some streets only showing around 10% of properties being owner occupied and this figure appears to be falling.
In addition to the high levels of rented accommodation and low levels of owner occupied properties there are high levels of empty properties. The Your Home Your Health survey has identified that up to 20% of units are empty in some streets and in some cases whole buildings that have been converted into a number of flats are vacant and boarded up.
There are 3029 empty dwellings (4.8% of total dwellings) of which 1429 (2.67%) are long term empty. Within the two wards, 16% - 20% of housing stock is empty, 50% of which is long term, resulting in an excess of cheap properties on the market.
A unit of temporary accommodation in these two wards costs £105 per week, compared to around £410 per week in London, illustrating why it is such an attractive prospect for agencies in the current financial climate to place vulnerable people in these properties. (Total Place project 2009 Final report 19th February 2010).
Figures provided by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) show that between 58 and 85% of properties within Cliftonville West have at least one category one hazard as assessed under the Housing Health and Safety Rating system. This is an indicator of substandard accommodation that does not meet the decent homes standard. The latest stock condition survey carried out in 2008, identified that the most common hazards found in a property related to excess cold through inadequate heating and insulation; fire through a lack of or inadequate fire detection; falls on stairs, on uneven surfaces and through insecure windows or broken railings and crime through poorly secured flats and common areas of buildings. This is further supported by the data mentioned in 2.4 which details the level of crime and incidents of fire. The Council’s Housing Regeneration Team received 647 complaints about the property conditions in privately rented accommodation in 2009 and this figure has been rising year on year across the District. Of those 647, 408 complaints were made about property in Cliftonville West and Margate Central Wards. This accounts for more than 60% of the team’s time being spent within these two wards with the majority being Clintonville West due to the higher concentration of residential properties.
The Housing Regeneration Team have increased the level of enforcement activity that is undertaken and last year served 103 statutory notices as well as issuing 12 prohibition orders/emergency prohibition orders. In Cliftonville West and Margate Central Wards, 64 notices were served accounting for 60% of all the notices served and 11 prohibition orders/emergency prohibition orders made accounting for 92% of the total made.
Although not all complaints result in formal action the number of complaints received is indicative of the level of disrepair to properties in the sector and that landlords are not maintaining their properties to a reasonable standard.
The features of disadvantage described in 2.1 and the nature of the housing stock have a significant impact on local services both in terms of the public services and the local community environment.
A research project looking at the combined costs to public sector services within the two wards was carried out earlier this year. The ‘Total Place’ submission showed that around £110million of public money is being spent in just two wards. This is 12% of the total public spend in Thanet which totals £886 million. 12% of spend covers a population of just 12,300 which is 9% of the total population of Thanet (130,200) (ONS 2009).
The high costs and impact on public agencies such Kent Fire and Rescue, Police, District Council Community Safety, Environmental Health, Waste and Recycling Services, Health, Housing, Social Services and Substance Misuse agencies are detailed below:
In 2005 Cliftonville West was declared as a renewal area. Additional resource was directed to this work in the form of a small team dedicated to responding to issues in the area and administering small grants to improve the frontage of the properties. The efforts of this team have identified the need for a wider partnership approach which has led to the development of the Margate Task Force. The area also benefited from investment from the Safer, Stronger Communities Fund (SSCF) which helped deliver projects for the community.
These have all had a positive impact on the area but have not directly tackled the internal conditions of the properties or dealt with continued anti social behaviour issues. Although the Council has always responded to complaints relating to housing condition and anti social behaviour this only deals with a small proportion of the problems.
In 2007 the Council also led on a multi agency enforcement approach called ‘Operation Cleansweep’. This is an intensive approach to tackle specific areas in partnership with other enforcement services such as the police, fire service, immigration, and community safety. A street where significant issues have arisen is targeted for a series of days in order to present a visible force within the area. Again this is a continuing programme of activity and is a highly successful model for enforcement. There have been a number of successes through the scheme and this approach will continue to have an important role in the enforcement and delivery of selective licensing.
In 2009 the Council introduced a proactive property inspection programme called ‘Your Home Your Health’. There are two main aims to this approach. The first is as a multi agency referral form to assist residents in accessing a number of services that they may not normally be aware of. These services range from finding a dentist or a doctor, quitting smoking and healthy living advice, to benefit advice and debt management, to accessing community groups and befriending services. The second aim is to collect information about the properties, the tenure, and the population. So far this has provided some useful information to allow us to direct services appropriately. ‘Your Home, Your Health’ runs in partnership with the NHS and services across Kent County Council and Thanet DC and has successfully linked a number of residents to services that have improved their health, safety and welfare.
Selective licensing will support the activity that is currently being undertaken but also bridge the gap that has been identified by dealing with the problems associated with rented accommodation and anti social behaviour. At the same time the housing intervention strategy that is currently being developed will address the re-structuring and re-balancing of the tenure mix of the area. The re-balancing approach, combined with selective licensing aims to deal with the low demand aspect of the area, looking at ways to work in partnership with developers and registered social landlords to redevelop empty and derelict buildings into family homes for owner occupation where possible.
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Housing Regeneration Team
E-mail:
housing.conditions @thanet.gov.uk
Tel: 01843 577437
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