Blackpool is worst on three of the four pressures we track. Asylum is no longer one of them.
Blackpool is highest of the 25 areas tracked here on three of the four pressures, and it is no longer near the top on the fourth.
| Domain | Blackpool | Average of the 25 areas tracked | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recorded crime per 1,000 | 142.8 (highest) | 81.0 | Year ending March 2024 |
| Adult social care spend per head | £724 (highest) | £532 | 2023/24 |
| EHCP growth over five years | +51.2% (highest) | +39.1% | Academic year 2023/24 |
| Asylum support per 10,000 | 16.5 (94th of 361 nationally, 74th percentile) | n/a | 30 June 2026 |
Correction, 31 August 2026. This page previously said Blackpool was worst or near-worst on every domain, and gave its asylum figure as 577 people at 40.0 per 10,000. That was the position at 31 December 2025. At 30 June 2026 Blackpool has 236 people on asylum support at 16.5 per 10,000. Blackpool’s own place page was already showing the newer figure while this page showed the older one.
Two things worth stating that the earlier version did not. The comparison set is 25 local authorities this site tracks, not all 361, so “highest” means highest of those 25 rather than nationally. And the four rows are not the same vintage: crime is year ending March 2024, social care and SEND are 2023/24, and the asylum figure is June 2026. The asylum row is two years fresher than the rest, which is exactly why it moved first.
The deprivation argument still holds. Blackpool remains the most deprived local authority in England on IMD 2019, and the three domains where it leads are the ones that follow deprivation rather than dispersal policy. What has changed is that asylum accommodation has moved out of Blackpool faster than the national average: 16,021 people were in hotel accommodation across the UK at 30 June 2026, against 30,657 six months earlier.
It has not dropped out of the composite. On the five-domain pressure index Blackpool is still second of the 25 areas tracked, on 79.9, because it leads three of the five outright. What has gone is the claim that it leads all of them. The full table is in the recomputed pressure index.
Where the asylum load actually sits in Lancashire now is in Four Lancashire authorities are in the national top nine.
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