Fence Houses

15°COvercast

• Today: 19° / 13° · 15% rain
• Tomorrow: 22° / 13° · Sunny

Source: WeatherAPI

Sunrise 06:33Sunset 19:30

12h 57m of daylight today

Next bank holiday: Christmas Day, Fri 25 Dec

Source: sunrise-sunset.org · gov.uk

31US AQI · Good

Main pollutant: fine particles (PM2.5)

Source: WAQI · Sunderland Silksworth, United Kingdom

73 reported · July 2026▲ 16% YoY

• Violence & sexual offences25
• Anti-social behaviour17
• Criminal damage & arson9
• Other theft6

4 stop & searches · mostly controlled drugs

Neighbourhood team: Houghton · Northumbria

Source: data.police.uk (within ~1 mile)

452 reported road collisions (2024)

180 killed or seriously injured · 584 casualties · 8.7 collisions per 10,000 residents

Source: DfT reported road collisions (STATS19)

174 food businesses within 2 miles

• 145 rated 4–5 ★ (125 top)
• 1 rated 0–2 (poor)

Source: Food Standards Agency

• Nearest station: Chester-le-Street (4.7 km)
• 36 bus stops within ~½ mile

Source: OpenStreetMap, National Rail

£138,148 average▲ 7% YoY

Across County Durham · to 2026-06

Source: UK House Price Index (HM Land Registry)

£645 average monthly rent▲ 6% YoY

• 1 bed £453
• 2 bed £574
• 3 bed £688

Source: ONS Price Index of Private Rents · to 2026-07

4.3× house price to earnings

A typical home costs 4.3 times median annual pay (3.4× for cheaper homes vs lower pay).

Source: ONS house price to workplace earnings ratio · 2025

• Cheapest petrol: 136.8p · AppleGreen (11.7 km)
• Cheapest diesel: 184.7p · Asda (11.6 km)

22 stations within ~8 miles

Source: CMA fuel price scheme

74 charging locations within ~8 km

• 16 with rapid charging (50 kW+)
• Fastest nearby: 350 kW
• Nearest: Houghton and Hetton Depot (0.3 km)

Source: Open Charge Map

• Sports pitches15
• Playgrounds4

Source: OpenStreetMap (within ~1 mile)

522,068 residents in County Durham · 234/km²

• Under 16: 17%
• 16–64: 62%
• 65+: 21%

Source: ONS Census 2021 (local authority)

More deprived than the average in England

Ranked 65 of 317 English local authorities (1 = most deprived)

12% of neighbourhoods are in England’s most deprived 10%

Source: English Indices of Deprivation 2019

£2,622 a year · Band D, 2026-27

Most homes here are Band A (56% of 255,650)

Source: VOA council-tax stock · MHCLG band levels 2026-27

280 schools · 73,802 pupils

208 primary · 30 secondary · 42 other

Ofsted: 99 of 116 graded schools rated Good or Outstanding (85%)

259inspected under Ofsted’s 2024+ framework (graded by area, no single overall grade)

Source: DfE Get Information about Schools · Ofsted · County Durham

415 CQC-registered services

• Care homes146
• GP practices73
• Dentists87
• Homecare agencies65
• Hospitals & hospices13

CQC ratings: 95% of rated services Good or Outstanding · 2 Inadequate

Source: Care Quality Commission · County Durham

• Not in the Green Belt
• 8 listed buildings within ~1.5 km

Source: planning.data.gov.uk (England)

393 applications decided

93.1% granted · 366 granted, 27 refused

Source: MHCLG planning statistics (PS2) · 2026 Q1

Bridget Phillipson

Labour

Houghton and Sunderland South

Source: UK Parliament

Reform UK majority

• Lab 5
• Con 1
• LD 15
• Grn 2
• Ref 55
• Oth 20

Source: Open Council Data UK (CC BY-SA)

• Schools4
• Pharmacies1
• Parks & greens2
• Restaurants & cafés4

Source: OpenStreetMap (within ~1 mile)

17,810 active business enterprises in the area

Source: ONS UK Business Counts (2025)

£661 median full-time weekly pay

3.1% of residents aged 16–64 claim unemployment-related benefits

£20,261 disposable income per head (2024)

Source: ONS / Nomis (claimant count · ASHE) · ONS regional GDHI

45% of homes rated EPC C or above

Most common band: D · 307,169 certificates

11.4% of households were in fuel poverty (2023)

Source: MHCLG EPC statistics · DESNZ sub-regional fuel poverty

41% low-carbon electricity

Imports 59% · Nuclear 16% · Biomass 13% · Solar 11%

18 gCO₂/kWh · very low intensity

Latest estimate for North East England · National Grid ESO

Life expectancy: 82.1 yrs women · 78.3 yrs men

Healthy life expectancy: 55.4 women · 55.9 men

69% of adults overweight or obese

Source: OHID Fingertips · 2025

• Life satisfaction7.6
• Feeling worthwhile7.6
• Happiness yesterday7.4
• Anxiety yesterday (lower is better)3.1

Average rating out of 10 · ONS personal well-being 2022-23

Open UK Parliament petitions most signed in Houghton and Sunderland South:

• Mandate standardised cancer training for all GPs in England1,367 local signatures · 17,297 nationwide
• Change surrogacy law to recognise intended parents from birth488 local signatures · 112,809 nationwide
• Ban anyone convicted of terrorism offences from standing for public office457 local signatures · 205,058 nationwide
• Remove sentence reductions for guilty pleas in controlling and coercive cases420 local signatures · 104,741 nationwide
• Do not ban social media for under 16s346 local signatures · 217,501 nationwide

Source: petition.parliament.uk · as of 2026-08-06

• 
  Fencehouses railway station · 0.1 km

  Fencehouses railway station served the village of Fencehouses, Tyne and Wear, England from 1841 to 1964 on the Leamside line.

• 
  Railway Wood (County Durham) · 0.5 km

  Railway Wood is a woodland in County Durham, England, near the village of Fence Houses. It covers a total area of 4.83 hectares. It is owned and managed by the Woodland Trust.

• 
  Fence Houses · 0.5 km

  Fence Houses, or Fencehouses is a village in the City of Sunderland in Tyne and Wear, England.

• Lambton Railway · 0.6 km

  The Lambton Railway was a private industrial railway in County Durham, England, constructed initially as a tramway from 1737, to enable coal to be transported from Lambton Collieries to the Port of Sunderland. It clos…

• 
  Woodstone Village · 0.8 km

  Woodstone Village is a hamlet in the civil parish of Little Lumley, in the County Durham district, in the ceremonial county of Durham, England. It neighbours the larger villages of Fencehouses and Burnmoor. The local…

• New Lambton, County Durham · 1.4 km

  New Lambton is a village in County Durham, England, although the postal address is Tyne and Wear. It lies between the villages of Bournmoor and Fencehouses, and about 3 miles (5 km) east of Chester-le-Street.

Source: Wikipedia (text under CC BY-SA)