Councillor wants action to improve lives of Corby residents living in deprivation hotspot

A county councillor has called for health, police and local authority bosses to join forces to tackle the high deprivation levels in a disadvantaged part of Corby.

Cllr John McGhee has said it is ‘extremely disappointing’ that Corby and the area of Kingswood that he represents is more disadvantaged than most other parts of the county and has called for a cross-party effort to tackle the high levels of deprivation.

The Corby borough ranked 70 out of 317 local authorities in the country in the government’s most recent indices of multiple deprivation report for 2019. In contrast the more prosperous South Northamptonshire ranked 312nd.

The report breaks down the entire country into small population areas of about 1,600 people (called local super output areas) and looks at factors including income, employment, crime levels and health to assess how affluent or underprivileged the area is.

Corby’s Kingswood ward included two of the five most deprived areas in Northamptonshire and the residents who live in the streets around Saxilby Close, Dunedin Road and Kenilworth are some of the most disadvantaged in England.

Cllr John McGhee, who brought the issue up at Northamptonshire County Council’s most recent cabinet meeting, now wants action to be taken to help people living in the area, which has been deprived and a hotbed of crime for many decades since it was first built in the late 1960s.

He said: “It is extremely disappointing because according to the indices of deprivation, Corby is well below anywhere else in the county.

“That’s extremely worrying for all of us I’m sure. We know there are seven main distinct domain of deprivation, which are, income, employment, health deprivation, disability, education and skills, crime, barriers to housing and living environment.

“Nothing has changed since the 2015 one and I put that down to the cuts to local government by national government.”

He told council leader Matt Golby at the virtual meeting: “We have a duty to our residents to improve these targets. I would put a request in chair, I’m looking at you as leader of the county council, and I would like this led by public health.

“Let us set up a cross party group of senior officers to look how we can improve the quality of life and improve that average of 70 at least up to the average of 105.

“That means we will have to work with public health, the NHS, Corby Council and the county council working together with the police.”

Leader Matt Golby said the county’s public health team was aware of the issues.

He said: “It (Corby) is a big outlier in the county and it is not right. The challenge is what we can do on top of what is already being done. I think the opportunity of having a north unitary will give a bit more focus on some of these areas like Corby.

“But we can take that challenge away, discuss with the director of public health and bring it back to you Cllr McGhee.”

The indices of multiple deprivation report is compiled every few years and shines a light on the areas of the country which are most underprivileged.

The most deprived area in Northants is part of Bellinge ward in Northampton.

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