Most deprived area in the UK

It has been Jaywick consistently for at least the last decade, perhaps longer. I am not sure why, I mean I know it is because they are poorer, sicker, older etc, but why that particular community there, so close to London, is difficult to understand.

Monica I knew it had featured in a tv programme about people on benefits.

It's on the coast, and most of the coastal towns in Essex still have tourists.

Just have no idea why Jaywick has this problem.

My husband's from Essex a couple of years ago he took me to Frinton on Sea, childhood memories It's up the coast from Jaywick I gather and frightfully naice

Frinton is “gentrified” no fast food outlets etc.

Yes I gather GG, I'm told Frinton wouldn't let a fish and chip shop open there. Wonder if they'd make an exception for Rick Stein {grin]

Many of the homes in Jaywick are former holiday homes, not built as permanent homes. It almost looks like a shanty town in a third world country. With this kind of housing, it is not surprising that the area is so poor.

The original houses in Jaywick were built by "plot holders" from London, who built the homes from scrap.

Over the years, it's become a dumping ground for benefit recipients. Properties are cheap and bed and breakfasts are used by other boroughs for housing.

Similar communities were built all over the south east, wherever land was cheap, but most of these other communities have been gradually updated, the ticky tacky houses replaced by better, much better in some cases, so that now they are no different from their surrounding area,

Why did Jaywick, never go through that metamophosis?

The Essex County Standard wrote an article about Trump using photos of Jaywick to warn of what might happen in the US. The photo paints a very grim picture of Jaywick but, according to the article, many improvements are being made.

As others have said, relatively close by is Frinton which is rather nice, if a bit staid.

Like any part of the UK, there are areas of wealth and areas of severe deprivation. London and the south east are not immune from poverty.

www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/17192291.jaywick-picture-used-by-trump-ally-dr-nick-stella/

I don't know why Jaywick was never gentrified. Maybe the residents themselves didn't want it. Maybe the council couldn't be bothered. I guess you'd actually have to talk to somebody who's lived there for a few decades.

I do know that it's been known as a dumping ground for problem families for decades. The local schools aren't places that people want to work. Other parts of Essex use cheap accommodation in Jaywick for homeless families.

The only 'genteel' coastal resort in Essex is Frinton; it wasn't 'gentrified'; it was always exclusive. The rest were either 'cheap and cheerfuls' for holidaying Londoners, fishing villages or yachting centres.

As people have rightly pointed out, Jaywick has been in decline for decades.

This is an article about Jaywick, written in 2013 by Amelia Gentleman, Jo Johnson's wife:

www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/mar/20/budget-2013-jaywick-aspirations-poorest

That was five years ago and nothing much has changed.

Incidentally, it's in a Conservative stronghold. Ex-UKIP MP, Douglas Carswell, was the MP. It's surrounded by much wealthier areas, whose residents are quite happy to wash their hands of Jaywick and blame the residents for the delapidated state of the place.

Jaywick is very much a reflection of the current state of the UK.