News: How does Rotherham compare to other "left behind" UK towns and cities?
Not great.
A pack of government data regarding Rotherham has been published that will help guide the borough on how a £20m investment will be made over the next ten years.
The data, which covers key issues such as vacant property, crime rates and footfall, shows that there is still much to do, even to match the national averages.
£20m earmarked for Rotherham by the previous Government has been confirmed and given a wider remit focusing on neighbourhood renewal and improving social capital.
Consultation is seen as key to how the money is spent as the programme aims to empower local people to take ownership for driving the renewal of their neighbourhood. The £1.5 billion programme sets out to invest in 75 areas over the next decade – "a long-term strategy to fix the foundations of those places most left behind."
Rothbiz reported last month on the early findings of the public consultation in Rotherham.
Money will be spent inside the boundary chosen by Government, known as a "Built Up Area." It is based on data provided by the Office for National Statistics and is the area of a town characterised by urban features such as town centres, major infrastructure and larger populations.
Rotherham's built up area is focused on the town centre but extends out to neighbourhoods including Kimberworth Park and Wingfield to the North, Eastwood and East Dene in the East, Canklow and Broom in the South, and Templeborough and Blackburn in the West.
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Vacancy rates have always been an issue, especially in Rotheham which lies in close proximity to the popular Meadowhall and Parkgate shopping centres. The data pack has the commercial vacancy rate in the Rotherham built up area at June 2025 as 19.1%, nearly double the England average of 10.4%.
Out of the built up areas receiving government cash (where data is recorded), Rotherham's vacancy rate is the fifth highest behind Grimsby (22.6%), Dewsbury (21.1%), Hartlepool (19.7%) and Accrington (19.6%).
Data is from the Local Data Company (LDC) and Green Street so may not be comparable to Rotherham Council data which showed a 25% vacancy rate for September 2019 and 31% at the height of lockdown in September 2020.
Whilst new businesses have taken up units in Rotherham, and traders have relocated and expanded, regeneration schemes are also having an impact, not least with Rotherham Council acquiring properties to knock them down for redevelopment - the vacated Primark and Wilko buildings being the prime examples.
The data pack includes a stat for footfall that is based on anonymised and aggregated mobile network data by Virgin Media O2 to work out the average daily number of outbound journeys (not including journeys to home) within the built up areas over the period April 2022 - March 2023.
Essentially it estimates the people leaving the built up area during the course of the day. Rotherham has the 2nd highest figure of the 75 "left behind" areas indicating that those that live in the area often travel out of the area, be it for work or otherwise.
Allthough the area does include popular industrial estates such as Templeborough, Eastwood and Aldwarke, the data, albeit from 2011, does show the close link to Sheffield when it comes to employment.
20,737 workers living in the Rotherham built up area also worked there but 9,197 traveled to Sheffield from Rotherham. Comparatively 21,165 from Barnsley stayed in Barnsley for work and 2,091 worked in Sheffield. For Doncaster 27,959 stayed in the area for work with 1,506 working in Sheffield.
Both Parkgate Shopping and Meadowhall are outside the boundary of the built up area. According to 2019 customer survey data, 25% of Meadowhall's total visitors came from Rotherham.
Completed regeneration efforts have prompted green shoots in the town centre. Rothbiz reported in April that footfall across Rotherham town centre during 2024 was 10% higher than the previous year with developers, Muse, pointing to the impact of the opening of the Forge Island leisure scheme in attracting visitors.
Preceptions around crime and people saying that they don't feel safe is also a key issue.
The main indicator here is recorded crime rate per 1,000 population (2022). Again, Rotherham's built up area figure (131) is way above the England average of 76.7.
For crime rates, Rotherham is ranked 13th out of the 70 areas where data is available. Interestingly, given many people's perceptions, both Barnsley (146) and Doncaster (142.8) built up areas, that will also both receive £20m, have higher recorded crime rates per 1,000 population than Rotherham.
On a positive note, the stats in which Rotherham comes out well include gigabit broadband coverage and those around housing affordability and access to services.
Images: BRH / Muse
A pack of government data regarding Rotherham has been published that will help guide the borough on how a £20m investment will be made over the next ten years.
The data, which covers key issues such as vacant property, crime rates and footfall, shows that there is still much to do, even to match the national averages.
£20m earmarked for Rotherham by the previous Government has been confirmed and given a wider remit focusing on neighbourhood renewal and improving social capital.
Consultation is seen as key to how the money is spent as the programme aims to empower local people to take ownership for driving the renewal of their neighbourhood. The £1.5 billion programme sets out to invest in 75 areas over the next decade – "a long-term strategy to fix the foundations of those places most left behind."
Rothbiz reported last month on the early findings of the public consultation in Rotherham.
Money will be spent inside the boundary chosen by Government, known as a "Built Up Area." It is based on data provided by the Office for National Statistics and is the area of a town characterised by urban features such as town centres, major infrastructure and larger populations.
Rotherham's built up area is focused on the town centre but extends out to neighbourhoods including Kimberworth Park and Wingfield to the North, Eastwood and East Dene in the East, Canklow and Broom in the South, and Templeborough and Blackburn in the West.
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Vacancy rates have always been an issue, especially in Rotheham which lies in close proximity to the popular Meadowhall and Parkgate shopping centres. The data pack has the commercial vacancy rate in the Rotherham built up area at June 2025 as 19.1%, nearly double the England average of 10.4%.
Out of the built up areas receiving government cash (where data is recorded), Rotherham's vacancy rate is the fifth highest behind Grimsby (22.6%), Dewsbury (21.1%), Hartlepool (19.7%) and Accrington (19.6%).
Data is from the Local Data Company (LDC) and Green Street so may not be comparable to Rotherham Council data which showed a 25% vacancy rate for September 2019 and 31% at the height of lockdown in September 2020.
Whilst new businesses have taken up units in Rotherham, and traders have relocated and expanded, regeneration schemes are also having an impact, not least with Rotherham Council acquiring properties to knock them down for redevelopment - the vacated Primark and Wilko buildings being the prime examples.
The data pack includes a stat for footfall that is based on anonymised and aggregated mobile network data by Virgin Media O2 to work out the average daily number of outbound journeys (not including journeys to home) within the built up areas over the period April 2022 - March 2023.
Essentially it estimates the people leaving the built up area during the course of the day. Rotherham has the 2nd highest figure of the 75 "left behind" areas indicating that those that live in the area often travel out of the area, be it for work or otherwise.
Allthough the area does include popular industrial estates such as Templeborough, Eastwood and Aldwarke, the data, albeit from 2011, does show the close link to Sheffield when it comes to employment.
20,737 workers living in the Rotherham built up area also worked there but 9,197 traveled to Sheffield from Rotherham. Comparatively 21,165 from Barnsley stayed in Barnsley for work and 2,091 worked in Sheffield. For Doncaster 27,959 stayed in the area for work with 1,506 working in Sheffield.
Completed regeneration efforts have prompted green shoots in the town centre. Rothbiz reported in April that footfall across Rotherham town centre during 2024 was 10% higher than the previous year with developers, Muse, pointing to the impact of the opening of the Forge Island leisure scheme in attracting visitors.
Preceptions around crime and people saying that they don't feel safe is also a key issue.
The main indicator here is recorded crime rate per 1,000 population (2022). Again, Rotherham's built up area figure (131) is way above the England average of 76.7.
For crime rates, Rotherham is ranked 13th out of the 70 areas where data is available. Interestingly, given many people's perceptions, both Barnsley (146) and Doncaster (142.8) built up areas, that will also both receive £20m, have higher recorded crime rates per 1,000 population than Rotherham.
On a positive note, the stats in which Rotherham comes out well include gigabit broadband coverage and those around housing affordability and access to services.
Images: BRH / Muse
2 comments:
Not that old cobblers that Rotherham as a lower crime rate than neighbouring towns,who records this data?Funny how if you do a simple Google search of Rotherham the latest news is always of some shooting or robbery or murder,yet Google Barnsley or Doncaster and it's usually much less crime items in the news.Put simply I don't believe the statistics.
And I don't believe you about the Google search comment.
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