The 50 'Blue Wall' seats that switched from Labour to the Conservatives determined the election result - but are now also shaping lots of public policy. It'd be good if that policy reflected reality rather than myths... 
Blue Wall seats are poor, but far from the poorest. Typical incomes match those in Labour seats (£24,400) & are well below traditional Tory seats (£25,500). But that's because of the north-south divide - within the North/Midlands/Wales Labour seats are poorer (incomes of £22,400)
The Blue Wall hasnt done consistently worse than other places - relative decline is a post-2010 thing = slower jobs growth + deeper pay squeeze. Pay is down by 2.1% since 2010 vs 0.7 & 1% in other Conservative & Labour seats in the North/Midlands/Wales respectively.
The young arent all leaving despite what people say - in fact young people are less likely to leave Blue Wall seats than elsewhere. But young people are also not arriving from elsewhere in Britain...
...which combined with less international migration means that a lower level of demographic dynamism than the rest of the county is really what marks the Blue Wall out. These areas have HALF the population growth of elsewhere
It's also not true that Blue Wall residents are all being forced to commute to big cities nearby for work - in fact they are less likely to leave their local authority for work and have the shortest commutes (24 minutes). Oh and basically none of them are commuting by train (2%)
One benefit of slow population growth and relative economic decline is less housing pressure - home ownership has held up with house price growth being half the national average post-crisis
The govt should pay close attention to the impact of welfare policy in the Blue Wall. Residents rely on benefits more than in other Tory seats (£2,300/person vs £1,600) AND Universal Credit's roll-out unintentionally sees many more losers in the Blue Wall than the south
Policy makers can read all that and much more in our deep dive into the economics and demographics of the Blue Wall from @charliejmccurdy @lauracgardiner @gustafmaja & @karlhandscomb - plus they could ask Blue wall residents what they actually want resolutionfoundation.org/publications/p…
