Britain’s most deprived areas revealed including Benefits Street town and stag do central – as PM promises cash boost to hard-hit areas

THEY were once thriving communities and booming coastal holiday resorts.

But today seaside towns and former mining areas are among the most deprived areas in the country.

They are in the spotlight this week as Theresa May revealed she's prepared to splash the cash to revive these forgotten areas to force through her Brexit deal.

Tories in seaside resorts such as Clacton and Great Yarmouth and Lancashire towns in traditional Labour heartlands are set to benefit from the multi-million pound cash boost.

Once-booming seaside resorts like Blackpool were hit hard by people going abroad on cheap package holidays, which decimated the local economy and led to mass unemployment and poverty.

They've seen been dubbed Poverty-on-Sea.

Insiders say the "National Renewal" fund will largely go on new infrastructure, NHS projects and skills training.

It's exactly the boost kind of Britain needs to tip the balance back towards leave-voting, working class towns that have been overlooked for too long.

Here Sun Online looks at the ten poorest parts of the country according to the government's deprivation index.

1) JAYWICK SANDS

Jaywick Sands - once a popular holiday destination for working class Londoners - has twice been named as England's poorest area.

An astonishing 40 per cent of people in the Essex seaside village rely on benefits to live.

A Channel 5 documentary called Jaywick: Benefits by the Sea, which aired in 2015, showed the harsh reality of life for people in the tight-knit seaside community.

It was back in the news last year when Republican Dr Nick Stella used an outdated snap of the Essex village - featuring neglected houses and an unpaved, pot-holed road - to warn what may happen if voters opposed President Donald Trump.

The Congress candidate added the slogan: "Only you can stop this from becoming reality."

It enraged locals with one saying "Donald Trump can kiss my big fat a***".

Jaywick has had money spent on it in recent years, with Essex Council ploughing £6.5million into the area to improve infrastructure.

2) BLACKPOOL

Blackpool - once a booming holiday destination - has become a magnet for tacky stag and hen parties.

The seaside resort has eight regions in the 20 most deprived areas of England.

It once attracted 17 million visitors a year but numbers have fallen to around eight million.

It has the highest drugs death rate in the country, with 14 heroin misuse deaths per 100,000 people in 2016. This compared with the national average of 1.7 in England.

Locals blame poverty and budget cuts for people getting hooked on drugs.

It also has by far the most fast food shops per person, while people in the town are twice as likely to die prematurely as those in affluent parts of Berkshire.

A plan to tackle poverty, improve health and boost Blackpool's economy by £1bn by 2030 was unveiled in October last year.

Blackpool Pride of Place Partnership aims to create 3,000 quality homes, 10,000 jobs and encourage investment.

3) CLIFTONVILLE WEST (in Margate in the Thanet district of Kent)

Cliftonville, a coastal area of Margate in the Thanet district of Kent, is home to an overwhelming white-British population that voted Leave in the EU Referendum.

It has high levels of unemployment, crime and social behaviour and a shortage of good quality, affordable housing.

Ukip has targeted South Thanet and this was the seat where Nigel Farage launched his last failed parliamentary bid in 2015.

4) COVENTRY'S WOOD END

Wood End is a residential suburb in north Coventry that was originally built for workers after World War Two during the city's industrial boom.

But it fell into neglect in the 80's and 90's, with riots breaking out in 1992 and 2009.

Many houses on the street lie empty and the area has become notorious for crime and anti-social behaviour.

Last November 16-year-old Jaydon Washington James died after being attacked in Wood End.

His sister, Jayda, said: "Jaydon was stabbed to death because of his postcode, because he was a Wood End boy."

5) LOWESTOFT (in Suffolk)

Famous for being Britain's most easterly town, Lowestoft was once home to a thriving fishing industry.

Like many seaside areas it was devastated by the decline of that industry as well as holidaymakers heading overseas and the town became a hotbed of petty crime.

Today more than a third of the population live in financial hardship while over 30 per cent of children live in poverty.

6) HULL

When Hull's traditional industries of whaling and sea-fishing declined, the city became one of the poorest in the UK.

In the city, 45 per cent of all its neighbourhoods were deemed "highly deprived" in the government's statistics.

It's previously been dubbed 'Britain's fattest city'.

However it received a boost when it was voted UK city of culture in 2017 which brought five million visitors to the city, £220m worth of investment and 800 new jobs.

7) BURNLEY (around Tay Street and Howard Street and then between Belvedere Road and Church Street)

Burnley, in the traditional Labour heartland of Lancashire, has seen a steady decline in its local economy since the closure of the textile mills in the 1980's.

It's now the cheapest place to buy a house in the country - with a terraced house priced at £54,000.

Despite that eight in ten people in Burnley don't have enough savings to fund a quarter of the deposit needed to buy a house.

The town has the second highest number of deaths relating to heroin or morphine in England, behind Blackpool.

8) MANSFIELD (around Sandy Lane)

Mansfield, a market town in Nottinghamshire, was devastated by the collapse of the coal mining industry, which thrived into the 1990's.

Today more than 20 per cent of its population are on benefits and it has become one of the country's most deprived former pit towns.

Mansfield brewery became the area's biggest employer, but that shut when the company was taken over by Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries.

Sports Direct is another local employer - but an investigation found appalling working conditions at its Shirebrook warehouse that resembled a Victorian workhouse.

9) BLACKBURN WITH DARWEN

Like its neighbour Burnley, Blackburn has suffered from the decline of the textile industry.

Six people of people in Blackburn are out of work, while 68.7 per cent of households have at least one economically active member, compared with a higher national average of 78.4 per cent.

In Blackburn 38 per cent of all food retail outlets are devoted to fast food – the highest proportion in England.

It has 236 takeaways in all - equivalent to one takeaway for every 625 people.

10) GREAT YARMOUTH

The once-glamorous resort of Great Yarmouth is another seaside town plagued by mass unemployment, which has led to problems such as drug addiction and petty crime.

With holiday-makers deserting the resort in favour of overseas breaks like many other English coastal towns, it has suffered from social problems such as teenage pregnancy, lone parenting, and people out of work.

Last month it was revealed a school in the town had set up a food bank to help pupils and their families who have run out of money and can't afford to eat.

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