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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Patrick Butler Social policy editor

Jaywick’s continued decline and intensifying London poverty tell same story of ‘broken’ Britain

People in Jaywick walk past a closed community building
Jaywick is chronically deprived: almost uniquely, it is in the 10% worst ranked neighbourhoods in England across all seven indicators of deprivation. Photograph: Teri Pengilley

It’s Jaywick again. For the fourth time in a row the tiny, apparently unprepossessing seaside village overlooking the north sea just down the coast from Clacton in Essex has reluctantly claimed the unenviable title of England’s most deprived neighbourhood.

Top of the indices of multiple deprivation since 2010, Jaywick Sands, once a popular holiday destination for working-class Londoners, has become a emblem of “broken” Britain, an exemplar of economic neglect, austerity and social breakdown, compounded by geographic isolation.

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