An initial look at the latest Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) shows Folkestone & Hythe has fallen further down England’s deprivation table. On the headline “rank of average score” (1 = most deprived; higher is better), the district is 79th of 296—down from 90th of 317 in 2019 and 113th of 326 in 2015, when it was still Shepway. In plain terms, Folkestone & Hythe is more deprived in relative terms in 2025 than it was in both 2019 and 2015.
IMD is a relative league table. A worse rank does not prove every local outcome deteriorated; it shows other places have improved faster (or declined less). Even so, the pattern across the underlying domains is clear enough to deserve a serious response.
What The Data Says
The seven domains of the IMD point to two areas where the district’s position has markedly deteriorated since 2019 and now sits on the wrong side of the national distribution.
First, Barriers to Housing & Services — a domain that captures access to affordable housing and proximity to key services — has deteriorated steeply. The district is now ranked 50/296 (remember: lower is worse), from 107/317 in 2019 and 173/326 in 2015. In eight years, Folkestone & Hythe has moved from the less-deprived half of England on this measure into the most-deprived fifth. That is a striking shift and strongly suggests a mix of affordability pressures, availability constraints, and practical difficulties reaching everyday services.
Second, Crime has reversed earlier improvement. After reaching 130/317 in 2019, it has fallen to 91/296 in 2025. The district is now notably more deprived on this measure than it was six years ago, and the deterioration is large enough to be meaningful.
Other domains also move the overall score in the wrong direction. Health Deprivation & Disability has slipped from 109 to 85. Education, Skills & Training has fallen from 95 to 74. These are not marginal changes. They point to deeper pressures that, if left unaddressed, will worsen long-term opportunity, earnings potential and demand on local services.
Employment is stubbornly static at 59 in both 2019 and 2025 — a rank that already places the district in the more-deprived half of England for worklessness and labour-market exclusion. The lack of progress here matters: it is the engine room for many other outcomes.
There are, however, genuine bright spots. The Income domain has improved from 82 to 109 between 2019 and 2025. The children’s income deprivation index (IDACI) has also improved, from 75 to 101. These gains do not negate the broader picture, but they are real and important. They suggest households have, on average, inched away from the sharpest edges of low income even as employment patterns and service access remain problematic. Meanwhile, the Living Environment rank is largely steady (from 146 to 140), and the older people’s income deprivation index (IDAOPI) is unchanged at 120.
How We Got Here
The longer arc helps explain today’s position. From 2015 to 2019, the district already moved towards the most-deprived end on most domains: overall IMD from 113 to 90; Barriers to Housing & Services from 173 to 107; Health from 134 to 109; Education from 112 to 95; Employment from 70 to 59. Only Crime improved in that period (from 108 to 130).
From 2019 to 2025, the slippage continued. The sharpest falls are in Barriers to Housing & Services and Crime, with Health and Education also moving decisively the wrong way. The overall rank drops again — from 90 to 79 — confirming that Folkestone & Hythe is not merely standing still while others race ahead; on several levers that matter for daily life, it is losing ground.
A note of caution is appropriate. The number of English councils in the IMD has changed over time (326 in 2015, 317 in 2019, 296 in 2025), so year-on-year comparisons are not a like-for-like headcount. But the direction and the scale of movement are consistent enough to draw firm conclusions.
What It Means – And What Should Happen Next
The IMD is not a verdict on any single policy, and it is not destiny. It is, however, a robust, multi-indicator signal of where communities face the greatest structural obstacles. In Folkestone & Hythe the signal is unmistakable:
-
Access to housing and essential services has become a defining weakness. If the district is to improve its position, this is the starting point: planning and delivery that increase the availability of genuinely affordable homes, protect rental affordability, and shorten journeys to basics (healthcare, schools, food shopping, public transport).
-
Community safety now requires renewed priority. A fall from 130 to 91 is not statistical noise; it is lived experience. That calls for practical, targeted action on neighbourhood crime and antisocial behaviour, backed by data and visible enforcement.
-
Health and skills are moving in the wrong direction at the same time. That combination is costly: poorer health suppresses employability and earnings, while weaker skills slow recovery when jobs do appear. Anchored investment — from primary care access to adult learning and vocational pathways — should be aligned explicitly with the areas scoring worst in the index.
None of this erases the positive movement on Income and the improvement in children’s income deprivation. Those gains are a platform to build on. The task now is to ensure they translate into durable improvements in employment, health and educational attainment — the domains that ultimately shift a place up the national table.
The Judgement
Taken as a whole, the 2025 IMD shows Folkestone & Hythe is more deprived relative to England than it was in 2019 and 2015. The district has serious, specific problems — housing access, crime, health, and education — that have worsened in the latest cycle. It also has meaningful improvements on Income (and for children in particular) that deserve recognition and protection.
A credible plan will be clear-eyed and targeted: unblock housing and service access, tackle crime at street level, and invest in health and skills where the data say the need is greatest. Without that focus, the next IMD will tell the same story — only in a lower place on the page.
The Shepway Vox Team
Dissent is Not a Crime
