Appendix C

Maidstone Profile 2014

Population

The total population of Maidstone is 159,300 people, the greatest out of the twelve Kent districts. Between 2003 and 2013 the population in Maidstone grew by 12.8% or 18,100 people. Just over half the population is female (50.7%) and 49.3% of the population is male. The largest ethnic group in Maidstone is White (94.1%). The largest single BME ethnic group is Asian/Asian British 3.2% (4,943).

Maidstone has a marginally lower proportion of 75 to 84 year olds with only 5.6% compared to the Kent figure of 6%. The town has the highest population aged between 25-29 years old, accounting for 6.2% of the total population for Maidstone (9,900 people), the Kent figure is 5.7%. The same is true for the age group 30-44 year olds with this group numbering 31,500, here Maidstone has the greatest proportion of people in this age group with 20.4% of the population compared to Kent with 18.5%.

Maidstone has a lower number of people aged 15 with 1.2%, this is lower than the Kent figure of 1.3%, however, this is the same proportion in England overall.  

Maidstone has a higher proportion of people aged 45-59 years old than Kent and England with this group making up 20.2% of the population in the borough.

Housing

With 66,982 homes Maidstone has the greatest number of dwellings in the County. In the four years from 2009 to 2013 Maidstone district has increased its dwelling stock by 4.65%.

Maidstone has the greatest number of both detached and semi-detached properties out of the districts in Kent. Taken together they amount to 46% of the districts’ housing stock, this is significantly higher than the proportion for England overall which is currently 40%. Maidstone has a lower proportion of flats/maisonettes compared to all England with this type of property accounting for 16% in the borough compared to 22% nationally.

Maidstone has a higher proportion of people that either own their home outright or with a mortgage at 70% compared to England where the proportion is 63%. In turn the proportion of people living in social rented accommodation is lower than for England at 13% compared to 18%.  

In October 2013 there were 414 long term vacant dwelling in Maidstone accounting for 8% of all long term vacant dwellings in Kent. Long term vacant dwellings account for 0.62% of the boroughs housing stock, lower than the proportion for England overall which is 0.93%. 

The majority of properties (54%) in the borough are in Council Tax bands C and D.  Maidstone has a significantly lower proportion of properties in bands A and B when compared to both Kent and England, with just 19% of dwelling in the borough in these bands compared with 29% in Kent and 44% in England.  This is likely due to the proximity of the borough to London coupled with higher than average house prices in the South East when compared to other regions; Sevenoaks which is closer to London has just 9% of its dwelling stock within these bands.

Average house prices in the borough are lower than that for the South East region for all property types but higher than the average for Kent, as the table shows, for semi-detached properties.

In terms of Council tax Maidstone has the third highest average rate per dwelling for council tax (band D) in Kent for 2014/15 (£1536 including parish precepts).

Economy, Employment & Skills

Of the total population, 99,400 (62.4%) people are aged 16-74 and considered of working age.  82.6% of people are economically active, of which 78.9% of people are in employment[1].

The wage gap between work based and resident based earning is currently £59.60, there has been a reduction in the difference between workplace and resident earnings over the last year – with the gap shrinking by £5.80 compared to the previous year.   The difference male resident based earnings per week are £122 higher than female resident based earnings. 

The main industries in Maidstone are Construction, followed by Professional, Scientific and Technical Industries and Retail. The Borough also has a growing medical sector. Maidstone town centre is home to both Kent Country Council and Maidstone Borough Council offices with 19,700 residents employed by the public sector.

There are 7,340 VAT and or PAYE registered businesses in the borough, and 65.6% of new businesses survive at least three years compared to the KCC area average of 60.3%. At present the percentage of vacant retail units in the town centre is less than 9%.

The graph below shows employment by occupation for all people aged 16-74 in Maidstone.

Maidstone has a fairly high proportion of people educated to NVQ level 4 or higher, 32% compared to 35% for Great Britain using data from the office for national statistics for Jan 2013 to December 2013.  By comparison 7% of the working age population have no qualifications.

Six of the Lower Super Output Areas in Maidstone, are areas that are amongst the top 20% of most deprived areas in England. 15.1% of children under 16 in Maidstone are living in poverty; this is lower than the figure for Kent which is 20.6%.

In the Borough 2% of households do not have central heating and 16% of households do not have a car or a van, these are lower than the averages for England overall. In addition 10.9% of the borough children receive free school meals compared to 13.8% in Kent overall.

The number of people claiming out of work benefits in Maidstone is slightly lower than overall figures for Kent; 7.3% (7,300) of the total working population (aged 16-64) are on out-of-work benefits. This figure includes 4.3% of people who are on incapacity benefits and 1.8% of people claiming job seekers allowance. The graph shows the proportion of out of work benefits being claimed in the borough.

There are 31,520 people in the borough that are receiving their state pension, of these 4,480 (14%) claim a pension credit.

Health

Life expectancy at birth in Maidstone for both men and women match the overall figures for Kent at 79.9 years for men and 83.4 years for women. However at the age of 65, life expectancy for a Maidstone resident is slightly lower for both genders when compared to the overall figures for Kent.   

The graph shows the self-reported health from the 2011 census, which shows that 4.4% of people feel they are in bad or very bad health, the figure for England overall is 5.5%.

15.8% (24,505) of people in Maidstone consider themselves to have a limiting life long illness and 9,700 (6.1%) people in Maidstone claim a disability benefit.

Of those aged over 65, 4,930 claim either disability living allowance or attendance allowance compared to 1,610 of those age 24 and under.  10% (15,561) of Maidstone residents provide some form of unpaid care each week and 1.3% (1,370) of those aged 16 and over currently claims a carer’s allowance.

Environment & Leisure

In 2013 the Council carried out a resident satisfaction survey, this showed that 54% of residents were satisfied or very satisfied with street cleanliness.  Over the last five years the levels of litter in the borough has been below 2% when inspected and over the last three year fly-tipping incidents in the borough has declined by 19%.  

Maidstone has the second highest figure of the Kent districts for total waste arisings and is in the bottom quarter when compared to all English district authorities. However, performance in relation to recycling is above the England average and Maidstone has reached a 50% recycling rate in 2014. 

User satisfaction at the leisure centre is 73%. The number of people using the leisure centre has increased since 2011 by over 18% with over 60,000 people using the centre each month. Nationally Maidstone has a lower than average percentage of adults participating in sport and active recreations with 26.6%.

Maidstone had a 10.6% increase in crime during 2013/14 with 877 additional crimes. Maidstone has the 6th lowest crime rate out of the Kent districts at 59.1 crimes per 1,000 population in Kent. Violence against the person accounts for the greatest proportion of crime at 26.9%.

Overall, Maidstone has the third greatest volume of domestic violence incidents out of the Kent districts. In 2013/14 there was a 21.3% increase in domestic violence incidents with an additional 84 incidents compared to the same period last year.

There was a 13% decline in Anti-social behaviour (ASB) incidents in 2013/14 with 574 fewer incidents than the previous year. The graph shows the volume of ASB incidents in Maidstone by month over the last three years. It shows that there has been a peak in incidents in August each year over the period shown and a drop in September.