Blackpool: worst on every metric. Simultaneously.

One town. Every pressure at once.

Domain	Blackpool	National average
Crime rate	142.8 per 1,000	~85
ASC spend per capita	£724	~£500
EHCP 5yr growth	+51.2%	~42%
Asylum support	577 (40.0 per 10K)	~18 per 10K
WBI 2021	90.4%	74.4%

Blackpool is the most deprived local authority in England (IMD 2019). It also carries an asylum dispersal rate more than double the national average. It has the highest crime rate in our tracking set. The highest adult social care spend per capita. The fastest SEND demand growth.

577 people on asylum support. Rate of 40 per 10,000 residents. Serco places them here because housing is cheap. Blackpool has cheap housing because nobody with a choice lives there.

The council receives £1,200 per asylum seeker per year from the Home Office. The hotel operator receives up to £68,000 per person. The council’s total budget is stretched across a population with the worst health outcomes, the highest addiction rates, and the lowest life expectancy in England.

Every metric we track points at Blackpool. No other council in our dataset is worst on this many dimensions simultaneously. This is not a coincidence. It is a system that loads pressure onto the places least able to carry it.

Source: Home Office asylum support data (Dec 2025). ONS crime statistics. NHS Digital ASC finance report. DfE SEND statistics.