Post by John Chanin on Aug 9, 2023 12:36:29 GMT
Southend is the traditional Cockney seaside playground, with its tacky amusement arcades, and muddy beaches, but has escaped the worst of seaside resort decline. While not as successful at reinvention as Brighton and Bournemouth, it shares their size which enables a more diverse economy, and its proximity to London and fast trains make it well within commuter range.
The east side of Southend is its more working class section. It is a very varied area. The town centre is like every other pedestrianised town centre with the same shops, but is surrounded by small terraced housing with high levels of private renting, and a growing ethnic minority population. To the north is the bulk of Southend’s council housing, including some of the worst tower blocks in the country full of drugs and deprivation. To the east there are also high levels of social housing, plus run down Victorian housing full of hostels, and including Southend’s red light district, behind the holiday area, with its famous mile long pier, its amusement park, and its old pleasure palace, the Kursaal. Along the Thames estuary, east of the holiday area, is the middle-class owner-occupied housing of Southchurch and Thorpe Bay. The latter, up market and full of retirees and yachts, is a conservative stronghold. Further east is Shoeburyness. The old naval base where the Thames meets the North Sea has been decommissioned, the old barracks converted into up market housing, and luxury flats built along the shore, facing the full weight of winter gales. Inland there is an extensive area of modern private housing estates built in the 1990s and full of young families, interspersed with more run down council housing.
In 1997 the undersized constituency had 3 wards added to it from Rochford District. These are also very varied but did not change the political balance of the constituency significantly. Rochford town is an old settlement with many old dwellings, and a mixed population. The north side of the town contains the only substantial council estate in the District (albeit mostly sold off). The modern west part of the town is not in this constituency. The old Rochford ward was the only ward in the District where Labour were competitive. Between Rochford, at the lowest bridging point of the Roach, and the sea there are extensive marshes, plus the overgrown village of Great & Little Wakering. This is a pleasant place to live with a prosperous population, with commuting more to Southend than to London. Further east out on the marshes is Foulness Island - while having a population of several hundred it is also privately owned (by the defence contractor Qinetiq) and access is barred to the public unless they have an invitation from a resident. Teddy Taylor when MP for the seat famously kicked up a huge fuss about his right to visit his constituents without restriction, and Qinetiq had reluctantly to give way. Public access is allowed once a month (although you can walk along the beach at low tide). This would have been a very different world if the Heath government had proceeded with the proposed London airport on the island.
Overall, this is not a particularly high status constituency, with the percentage with degrees well into the bottom half of the national order, and only the town centre Milton ward having more people with degrees than with minimal qualifications. While dominating national elections, politically at local level in Southend the Conservatives have been on a long slide in this constituency, and hold just 7 of the 21 council seats. The town centre has consolidated as a Labour stronghold, containing most of the modern demographic groups that tend to Labour. Elsewhere there is a plague of independents, in Thorpe Bay ultra-conservatives who quite like the genteel decline of the town, in Shoeburyness a protest against remoteness. UKIP made substantial inroads in this constituency during the last decade in alliance with the independents. The Rochford wards are whiter, and safe for the Conservatives with a reasonable Labour minority, the last re-warding here having split Rochford town. This seat is exactly the sort of seat elsewhere in England that turned to Labour in 1997. But local MP Teddy Taylor was hugely popular and withstood the Labour landslide comfortably. His sizable personal vote was demonstrated when he retired in 2005, and there was a 2.4% swing to Labour against the national trend of a 3% swing to the Conservatives.
The main boundary change here is the removal of St Lukes ward out on the ring road, with its council estates, to Southend West. A further small bonus comes from an extra 2700 voters from the sparsely populated villages north of Rochford, like Paglesham and Canewdon. This made the seat 5000 voters smaller, and a little safer for the Conservatives. The former MP James Duddridge stood down at the 2024 election, which saw a huge swing to Labour of 19% - even greater than the average swing in seats won by Labour, with the Conservative vote more than halving. This was despite the Labour share of vote barely rising from 2017. The new MP is Bayo Alaba, a Londoner and former soldier.
Census data: Owner-occupied 56% (450/575 in England & Wales), private rented 27% (85th), social rented 16% (231st).
: White 88%(325th), Black 3%(176th), South Asian 3%(272nd), Mixed 3%(205th), Other 3%(243rd)
: Managerial & professional 36% (337th), Routine & Semi-routine 28% (276th)
: Degree 25%(491st), Minimal qualifications 33% (96th)
: Students 6%(277th), Over 65: 18%(322nd)
Boundaries : The new seat is made up of 96% from Southend E & Rochford and 4% from Rayleigh & Wickford
89% of the old Southend East seat is in the new one, with 11% going to Southend West
The east side of Southend is its more working class section. It is a very varied area. The town centre is like every other pedestrianised town centre with the same shops, but is surrounded by small terraced housing with high levels of private renting, and a growing ethnic minority population. To the north is the bulk of Southend’s council housing, including some of the worst tower blocks in the country full of drugs and deprivation. To the east there are also high levels of social housing, plus run down Victorian housing full of hostels, and including Southend’s red light district, behind the holiday area, with its famous mile long pier, its amusement park, and its old pleasure palace, the Kursaal. Along the Thames estuary, east of the holiday area, is the middle-class owner-occupied housing of Southchurch and Thorpe Bay. The latter, up market and full of retirees and yachts, is a conservative stronghold. Further east is Shoeburyness. The old naval base where the Thames meets the North Sea has been decommissioned, the old barracks converted into up market housing, and luxury flats built along the shore, facing the full weight of winter gales. Inland there is an extensive area of modern private housing estates built in the 1990s and full of young families, interspersed with more run down council housing.
In 1997 the undersized constituency had 3 wards added to it from Rochford District. These are also very varied but did not change the political balance of the constituency significantly. Rochford town is an old settlement with many old dwellings, and a mixed population. The north side of the town contains the only substantial council estate in the District (albeit mostly sold off). The modern west part of the town is not in this constituency. The old Rochford ward was the only ward in the District where Labour were competitive. Between Rochford, at the lowest bridging point of the Roach, and the sea there are extensive marshes, plus the overgrown village of Great & Little Wakering. This is a pleasant place to live with a prosperous population, with commuting more to Southend than to London. Further east out on the marshes is Foulness Island - while having a population of several hundred it is also privately owned (by the defence contractor Qinetiq) and access is barred to the public unless they have an invitation from a resident. Teddy Taylor when MP for the seat famously kicked up a huge fuss about his right to visit his constituents without restriction, and Qinetiq had reluctantly to give way. Public access is allowed once a month (although you can walk along the beach at low tide). This would have been a very different world if the Heath government had proceeded with the proposed London airport on the island.
Overall, this is not a particularly high status constituency, with the percentage with degrees well into the bottom half of the national order, and only the town centre Milton ward having more people with degrees than with minimal qualifications. While dominating national elections, politically at local level in Southend the Conservatives have been on a long slide in this constituency, and hold just 7 of the 21 council seats. The town centre has consolidated as a Labour stronghold, containing most of the modern demographic groups that tend to Labour. Elsewhere there is a plague of independents, in Thorpe Bay ultra-conservatives who quite like the genteel decline of the town, in Shoeburyness a protest against remoteness. UKIP made substantial inroads in this constituency during the last decade in alliance with the independents. The Rochford wards are whiter, and safe for the Conservatives with a reasonable Labour minority, the last re-warding here having split Rochford town. This seat is exactly the sort of seat elsewhere in England that turned to Labour in 1997. But local MP Teddy Taylor was hugely popular and withstood the Labour landslide comfortably. His sizable personal vote was demonstrated when he retired in 2005, and there was a 2.4% swing to Labour against the national trend of a 3% swing to the Conservatives.
The main boundary change here is the removal of St Lukes ward out on the ring road, with its council estates, to Southend West. A further small bonus comes from an extra 2700 voters from the sparsely populated villages north of Rochford, like Paglesham and Canewdon. This made the seat 5000 voters smaller, and a little safer for the Conservatives. The former MP James Duddridge stood down at the 2024 election, which saw a huge swing to Labour of 19% - even greater than the average swing in seats won by Labour, with the Conservative vote more than halving. This was despite the Labour share of vote barely rising from 2017. The new MP is Bayo Alaba, a Londoner and former soldier.
Census data: Owner-occupied 56% (450/575 in England & Wales), private rented 27% (85th), social rented 16% (231st).
: White 88%(325th), Black 3%(176th), South Asian 3%(272nd), Mixed 3%(205th), Other 3%(243rd)
: Managerial & professional 36% (337th), Routine & Semi-routine 28% (276th)
: Degree 25%(491st), Minimal qualifications 33% (96th)
: Students 6%(277th), Over 65: 18%(322nd)
Boundaries : The new seat is made up of 96% from Southend E & Rochford and 4% from Rayleigh & Wickford
89% of the old Southend East seat is in the new one, with 11% going to Southend West
| 2017 | % | 2019 | % | Notional | % | 2024 | % | |
| Conservative | 23,013 | 48.7 | 27,063 | 58.7 | 25,463 | 59.0 | 11,368 | 28.7 |
| Labour | 17,465 | 37.0 | 14,777 | 32.0 | 13,521 | 31.3 | 15,395 | 38.8 |
| Liberal Democrat | 1,265 | 2.7 | 2,822 | 6.1 | 2,775 | 6.4 | 2,269 | 5.7 |
| UKIP/Reform | 1,777 | 3.8 | 7,214 | 18.2 | ||||
| Green | 804 | 1.7 | 42 | 0.1 | 2,716 | 6.8 | ||
| Other | 2,924 | 6.2 | 1,474 | 3.2 | 1,356 | 3.1 | 694 | 1.8 |
| Majority | 5,548 | 11.7 | 12,286 | 26.6 | 11,942 | 27.7 | -4,027 | -10.2 |