Hull named one of England's 10 most deprived places

The deputy prime minister's constituency, Hull, is one of the 10 most deprived places in England, according to figures published by his department on Wednesday.

And Knowsley in Merseyside has replaced Tower Hamlets in east London as the most deprived local authority area in England.

Hull, Islington and Nottingham replaced Blackburn, Hartlepool and the east London borough of Newham in the top 10 of the ODPM's 2004 indices of deprivation, which was last published in 2000.

The councils are ranked on the average deprivation in their area but the ODPM also uses measures such as income and employment.

The indices have been altered this year to include crime and housing. They also now divide towns and cities into smaller areas, and this partly explains the change in rankings.

Colin Inglis, leader of Hull council, said: "This reinforces the work that needs to be done to bring Hull forward. It's about Hull as a city, not a council.

"The inner core has problems but a lot of the statistics are bad because the boundary is drawn tightly around Hull. It is a distorted picture."

The table (right) will help to identify pockets of deprivation in affluent areas that would not have been pinpointed by the old-style indices.

The deprivation index is used to decide which councils should get a slice of the £475m Neighbourhood Renewal Fund.

Eighty-eight councils receive cash – 81 councils that topped the 2000 deprivation table and seven with long-standing problems that have been given cash in the past.

However, the current funding ends in two years' time so councils' funds should not be affected by their change in rank.

Deputy prime minister John Prescott was unavailable for comment at time of going to press.