Natural England

New Index - New opportunities for rural areas - 23 August 2000

The fact that rural deprivation exists, and can be as bad as in some of the worst inner city areas, is recognised in a new government index of disadvantaged areas in England. More rural areas will now be able to benefit from area-targeted initiatives such as New Deal for Communities, Single Regeneration Budget and the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund, according to the Countryside Agency 

The Index of Multiple Deprivation, published by the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR), replaces the 1998 Index of Local Deprivation, which was criticised by the Countryside Agency and others for its ‘urban’ based indicators. 

Tim Allen, head of research at the Countryside Agency said “The new Index of Multiple Deprivation is a big improvement on the previous Index of Local Deprivation. The inclusion of the ‘access to services’ category is especially welcome because it acknowledges a previously unrecognised problem facing people in remote rural areas.

“The new Index will allow the Countryside Agency to:
-     improve our understanding of rural poverty and to refine our advice to government on the targeting and impact of its policies.
-     complement our own indicators of rural disadvantage and access to services
-     inform our national and regional reports on the State of the Countryside

“However, the Index, like any area-based description of deprivation, has limitations - especially for rural areas where problems tend to be less concentrated. Inflexible use of the Index to direct expenditure to areas with concentrations of deprived people would result in large numbers of people in need being overlooked, especially in rural areas.”

“We have commissioned Oxford University, who created the new Index, to provide a detailed analysis of the results, making rural/urban comparisons and pointing out local and regional differences. This will be published later this year.”

The Index of Multiple Deprivation is a set of thirty three indicators, organised under the six themes of income; employment; health & disability; education, skills & training; housing and geographical access to services - each representing different forms of deprivation. The index enables deprivation to be mapped more accurately than before and allows areas to be ranked according to their level of deprivation. 

The DETR uses the Index to target regeneration funding such as New Deal for Communities and Single Regeneration Budget on the most deprived areas. Increasingly, other government and non-government bodies also use it for resource targeting.
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Notes for editors

For more information please contact Nigel Ellway or Julia Cropley on 020 7340 2907/2909. 

The Countryside Agency is responsible for advising government and taking action on issues relating to the social, economic and environmental well being of the English countryside

Thirteen of the worst 100 districts are rural. The ten most deprived rural districts were ranked:
Wear Valley     22
Penwith      49
Pendle      50
Kerrier      59
Thanet      64
Copeland      72
East Lindsey     78
Bassetlaw      79
Waveney      86
Isle of Wight     87