The Geography of Financial and Economic Vulnerability in England and Wales

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Download Local Authority Data-Geography of financial vulnerability in England and Wales

Download Parliamentary Constituency Data-Geography of financial vulnerability in England and Wales

This report highlights the scale and range of financial vulnerability at parliamentary constituency (PC) and local authority (LA) level in England and Wales to help inform policy on economic and financial inclusion and target policy interventions. It does this by analysing unique data on consumer county court judgments (CCJs) provided by Registry Trust Ltd and other publicly available economic data.

We analysed the data at PC level with a view to helping Members of Parliament identify areas of England and Wales experiencing particularly challenging economic and financial conditions and influence government and regulatory policy. Similarly, local authorities have a range of direct interventions for addressing financial exclusion and vulnerability at their disposal. So, we hope the LA level data will help authorities and local civil society organisations identify those areas experiencing difficult conditions and target interventions.

The report has two main sections containing analysis of the data at PC level and at LA level. In each section, we provide a regional profile of CCJ densities and a detailed analysis of the 50 worst affected local areas (PCs and LAs) as measured by density of CCJs.

This is then followed by an analysis of the range of wider economic and financial conditions in those PCs and LAs with the highest and lowest density of judgments.

We then also performed some basic correlation analysis between judgment density and the other indicators across England and Wales highlighting the strongest relationships.

Finally, we include some conclusions and recommendations on how this analysis might be used by policymakers, regulators, civil society organisations, the academic community, and others such as impact investors to shed light on economic and financial vulnerability, better inform policy development, and target interventions.

The Annexes contain the full data set of indicators for the 50 worst affected PCs and LAs.

We are very grateful to Registry Trust for providing access to the granular data on county court judgments and to the RTL team for providing expert guidance on the use of the data.

For further information, please contact Mick McAteer, Co-Director, Financial Inclusion Centre (FIC) on mick.mcateer@inclusioncentre.org.uk

Financial Inclusion Centre

September 2026