Does the local economic performance league table lie? Concentric banding and the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2010

This article seeks to provide evidence on whether ‘league table’ orderings for the economic performance of local areas are robust to the use of spatial units other than the Local Authority. We concentrate primarily on the overall index from the recently published Index of Multiple Deprivation for England. In addition to compiling league tables for administrative Local Authority areas and functional Travel-To-Work Areas, we also develop a concentric banding approach which allows a range of definitions for any local area. Our results demonstrate that local economic performance league table standings can exhibit marked sensitivity to the adopted definition of local area. We offer some particular focus on the case of Hull, but also demonstrate that this is not a unique example.