Why Folkestone & Hythe is getting poorer — and how to turn it around

New official slides from the district’s Community Safety Partnership (CSP) confirm what many residents have felt for years: Folkestone & Hythe has grown poorer relative to the rest of England. The question now is whether local action is matching the scale of the problem.

The Headline Shift – And Why It Matters

The CSP’s November 2025 presentation (page 10) states that on England’s national deprivation ranking the district moved 17 places in the wrong direction: from 101st most deprived (2015) to 84th (2019). That means deprivation has intensified here faster than in many other places. 

The Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) due Thursday 30 October 2025 will show what has happened since — but until then, 2019 remains the latest published IMD, and the 2015 – 2019 deterioration is a matter of record.

The Numbers Behind The Slide

• Joblessness: The CSP slide puts the local unemployment rate at 3.9%, above Kent’s 3.2% and Great Britain’s 3.7%. Separately, the ONS claimant count shows 3.1% of working-age residents claiming unemployment-related benefits in September 2025, including a high 6.8% among 18–24s. Both measures point the same way: labour-market fragility.

• Health going backwards: Kent’s public-health bulletin records the largest decade-long fall in male life expectancy in Kent here in Folkestone & Hythe — from 79.46 years (2011–13) to 77.82 (2021–23) (-1.64 years). That is a stark inequality signal. 

• Fuel poverty: Government’s 2023 LILEE figures confirm 11.4% of English households in fuel poverty; constituency-level analyses and local reporting have repeatedly flagged heightened risk in this district. The CSP documents show large-scale cost-of-living support, which is welcome — but it’s also a barometer of need.

• Rough sleeping and homelessness: Kent’s countywide snapshot shows rough sleeping rose 10.3% year-on-year in autumn 2024, with local authorities (including this district) under pressure for beds, prevention and relief.

• Crime and vulnerability: The CSP records peak domestic-abuse incidents in August (306 offences) and highest ward totals in Folkestone Central, East Folkestone and Folkestone Harbour — the same neighbourhoods long associated with deep deprivation.

What Residents Have Been Saying – And What The Data Now Supports

Local investigative site Shepway Vox has chronicled the symptoms for years: persistently deprived pockets in central and north-east Folkestone, fuel-poverty hotspots, housing stress and fragile conditions for small businesses. Regeneration bids themselves acknowledge four neighbourhoods in the most deprived 10% nationally — a pattern that persists across IMD iterations. The CSP slides and official datasets square with that picture.

What’s Driving The Decline?

• The “London-by-the-Sea” paradox. Influxes of investment and newcomers have lifted some parts of the town, but property prices and rents have outpaced local wages, creating a two-tier economy. Hospitality and care are large local employers; median pay lags regional averages. Without inclusive growth, gentrification risks deepening divides. 

• Geography and access. The district stretches from dense coastal wards to isolated Romney Marsh communities. Transport links and service access vary wildly — exactly why the CSP’s new plan stresses “Town Centre v’s Rural” priorities. 

• Austerity and the cost-of-living shock. A decade of cuts hollowed out buffers just as energy prices surged. The council’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund work, Homes Essential Fund, mobile pantry and warm spaces have provided lifelines to thousands — proof of both need and response.

Are Current Initiatives Enough?

The district and partners have not been idle. Safer Streets delivered bystander training, more CCTV, taxi marshals, youth outreach and “Folkestone Connected”, a tool to find safety resources; Community Wellness events now run throughout the year. These are practical, popular — and necessary. But they are largely treating symptoms (crime, safety fears, immediate hardship) rather than root causes (low pay, cold homes, skills/attendance gaps, affordable housing supply).

What Success Should Looks Like (And How To Measure It)

• Fewer fuel-poor homes (LILEE metric), year-on-year — with transparent ward-level reporting each quarter. 

• Youth unemployment down in the most deprived wards — using Nomis 18–24 claimant rates as the yardstick.

• Life-expectancy gap narrows — targeted cardiovascular, smoking-cessation, mental-health, and warm-homes interventions in Central/East Folkestone tracked to outcomes. 

• Attendance recovery in schools serving the hardest-hit neighbourhoods — published school-by-school data with funded family support. (Consistent with CSP’s safeguarding emphasis.) 

• Homelessness prevention: fewer households in temporary accommodation; sustained reductions in rough sleeping. 

The Immediate Next Test

The IMD 2025 release on Thursday 30 October 2025 (09:30) will show whether Folkestone & Hythe’s position has stabilised or slipped further since 2019. Whatever the result, the council should publish a same-week ward-level action note mapping each IMD domain (income, employment, health, education, crime, housing, environment) to a funded intervention and a measurable target. No more lists of projects — targets that move the numbers.

Bottom Line

Both the district’s own slides and national datasets tell a consistent story: Folkestone & Hythe lost ground between 2015 and 2019 and is still grappling with the fallout — fragile jobs, falling male life expectancy, fuel-poverty pressure, rising homelessness risk, and concentrated vulnerability in the same wards, year after year. The response has heart and hustle. Now it needs hard metrics, sharper targeting and public accountability to reverse the trend.

The Shepway Vox Team

Dissent is NOT a Crime