Biscot ward profile April 2019 Business Intelligence | Luton Council Visit our information observatory | Visit our council website Contents Summary for Biscot ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Demographics .............................................................................................................................................. 5 Mid-year population estimates .................................................................................................................. 5 Age breakdown ......................................................................................................................................... 5 Population by ethnicity .............................................................................................................................. 6 Deprivation ................................................................................................................................................... 7 Economic Activity ......................................................................................................................................... 8 Employment .............................................................................................................................................. 8 Claimant count .......................................................................................................................................... 9 Crime .......................................................................................................................................................... 10 Burglary .................................................................................................................................................. 10 Hate crime .............................................................................................................................................. 10 Anti-social behaviour (ASB) .................................................................................................................... 11 Fly tipping ............................................................................................................................................... 11 Perceptions of Luton ................................................................................................................................... 12 Education (2017 results) ............................................................................................................................. 15 Early Years ............................................................................................................................................. 15 Key stage 1 ............................................................................................................................................. 16 Key stage 2 ............................................................................................................................................. 17 Key stage 4 ............................................................................................................................................. 18 Health ......................................................................................................................................................... 19 Low birth weight ...................................................................................................................................... 19 General health ........................................................................................................................................ 19 Obesity ................................................................................................................................................... 20 Life expectancy ....................................................................................................................................... 20 Causes of death ...................................................................................................................................... 21 Housing ...................................................................................................................................................... 22 Number of households ............................................................................................................................ 22 Type of household spaces ...................................................................................................................... 22 Tenure .................................................................................................................................................... 23 Social rented households ........................................................................................................................ 24 Average house prices ............................................................................................................................. 25 Occupancy levels .................................................................................................................................... 26 Appendix .................................................................................................................................................... 27 2 of 27 Biscot ward profile v4.0 – April 2019 Summary for Biscot These series of reports provide a summary of the latest available information on the demographic and socio-economic make-up of the nineteen wards in Luton. It looks at the population structure and provides information on the economic, housing and educational achievement of each ward. What’s new – April 2019: Perceptions survey update (i) 34 per cent feel the image of Luton has improved over the last year 57 per cent feel positive about the future of this town Residents top rated aspects: 1. Schools (82%) 2. The town centre (80%) 3. Sports & leisure facilities (74%) November 2018: Housing there are 74,293 households in Luton of which 4,524 (6.1 per cent) are in Biscot Biscot has 10 per cent detached, 36 per cent semi-detached, 26 per cent terraced and 21 per cent purpose built flats (ii) the most common tenure in Biscot is housing rented from a private landlord or letting agency with 34.2 per cent, followed by housing owned with a mortgage with 31.1 per cent (iii) Biscot has low levels of social rented households with 11.5 per cent. The lowest is in Barnfield with 1.5 per cent and highest in Northwell with 33.8 per cent (iv) the average three bedroom house in Luton in October 2018, cost £280,000 compared to £287,000 in Biscot v Biscot has the second highest proportion of overcrowding in Luton, with 28 per cent (vi) August 2018: Health Biscot had higher than Luton average (of 9.1 per cent) levels of low birth weights over a five year period with 11 per cent (vii) in the 2011 census, the percentage of people who self-reported bad or very bad health in Biscot was 5.4 per cent (as a percentage of the total number of people who responded to this question); the average for Luton was 4.8 per cent (viii) Biscot had one of the highest levels of obesity in children compared to the average in Luton but one of the lowest in adults with 23.6 per cent of adults either overweight or obese (ix) the average life expectancy in Luton for females is 82.4 and male 78.5. In comparison, Biscot’s average was lower for both genders with 81.2 and 76.7 respectively (x) the highest number of deaths recorded in Biscot was caused by circulatory disease (xi) April 2018: Demographics (xii) Biscot ward is located in the centre of the town. The population of Biscot (based on mid-year estimate 2016) was just over 17,000, accounting for eight per cent of Luton’s population Biscot has a higher proportion of residents under 35 in comparison to the rest of Luton. Residents aged over 45 are proportionally lower in Biscot compared to the rest of the town 3 of 27 Biscot ward profile v4.0 – April 2019 Population (xiii) the white (British, Scottish, N. Irish, Welsh) population of Biscot consists of 11 per cent, compared to 44.6 per cent in Luton the highest proportion of those living in Biscot are Pakistani with 34.9 per cent following by Bangladeshi with 24.3 per cent Deprivation (xiv) the 2015 indices of multiple deprivation showed that Biscot was in the top 20 per cent most deprived nationally with the southern part of the word in the top ten per cent most deprived the percentage of children living in poverty after housing costs is ranked the highest in Biscot with 40 to 45 per cent, making it the most deprived ward in Luton Economic activity Biscot has a lower proportion of economically active population than the rest of Luton with 62.6 per cent compared to 74.3 per cent in Luton. The unemployment rate is 4.7 per cent higher than the rest of Luton, with one in every six people being unemployed (xv) the majority of those in employment in Biscot are in elementary occupations with almost half of those employed in the bottom three occupation levels Biscot has the second highest rate of claimants in Luton with 250 people claiming unemployment benefit at the start if 2018; a rate of 2.3 per cent (xvi) Crime (xvii) the west side of the town has a higher level of burglaries than the east Biscot, located in the centre of town has a relatively low number of burglaries in comparison to the west it did however have the second highest level of hate crime