Local · Portsmouth

Portsmouth North

The northern half of the city — Portsea Island north of roughly Fratton, plus Cosham, Paulsgrove, Drayton and Farlington on the mainland side.

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Measured for this area

Figures that are genuinely published at this geography, not apportioned from a wider one.

70,446

Electorate

2024 general election

UK Parliament

59.0%

Turnout

2024

UK Parliament

780

Majority

2024

UK Parliament

Who represents you

Amanda Martin

Labour · MP for Portsmouth North

Full profile, voting record and contact details →

This half of the city, in census data

Built by combining the 7 wards in this seat, weighted by population — not by splitting a city figure in half.

100,133

Residents (Census 2021)

Portsmouth: 208,003

18.5%

Households deprived in 2+ ways

Portsmouth: 19.4%

19.8%

Private rented homes

Portsmouth: 28.6%

19.7%

Adults with no qualifications

Portsmouth: 17.4%

Child poverty in Portsmouth North

Correct as of Financial year ending 2025, published 26 March 2026

Children under 16 in relative low income. DWP publishes two measures and they are not interchangeable — switch between them to see what housing costs do.

27.1%

after housing costs

5,499

children

17.8%

before housing costs

26%

UK, after housing costs

Published by DWP at constituency level — not apportioned from city figures.

Paulsgrove38.2%1,161 children

Nelson37.4%1,302 children

Cosham26.1%769 children

Copnor24%603 children

Baffins23.7%703 children

Hilsea23.2%640 children

Drayton and Farlington12.6%324 children

UK average 26% (after housing costs)

The gap between the two measures is what housing costs do to family income. Across Portsmouth's wards, deducting rent and mortgage moves child poverty by between 5 and 14 percentage points. Charles Dickens goes from 38.7% to 51.6%; Nelson from 23.4% to 37.4%. That is not a change in earnings — it is the same families, measured after they have paid to keep a roof over their heads.

Definitions, and why other sources quote different rates

Portsmouth City Council's Public Health Needs Summary quotes lower ward rates — Charles Dickens 35.9% and Paulsgrove 27.5%. Those sit with the BEFORE housing costs series, not the after-housing-costs one: DWP puts Paulsgrove at 27.8% BHC for FYE 2025 and 27.6% for FYE 2023, either of which rounds to the council figure. The council therefore appears to be quoting a before-housing-costs measure. Charles Dickens does NOT reconcile exactly against any published DWP year — the BHC series runs 37.3% to 38.7% — so a difference of roughly two points remains unexplained there, most likely a different age range or an earlier vintage. That is stated rather than smoothed over. Any figure quoted from this page should carry its measure and its year.

Scope: children aged 0 to 15 in families claiming Child Benefit and at least one other household benefit, in relative low income. Figures for 16 to 19 year olds are published separately and are not included here.

Ward profile

Pick a ward to see everything published for it in one place, against the city and England.

Baffins

Portsmouth North · 15,019 residents

23.7%

child poverty, after housing costs

703

children affected

15.4%

before housing costs

26%

UK average (AHC)

Measure (Census 2021)	Baffins	Portsmouth	England
Households deprived in 2+ ways	15.5%	19.4%	18.1%
Social rented homes	11.2%	18%	17.1%
Private rented homes	16.4%	28.6%	20.5%
Overcrowded households	2.8%	4.4%	4.4%
Residents in bad or very bad health	4.4%	5%	5.2%
Adults with no qualifications	17.6%	17.4%	18.1%
Adults with degree-level qualifications	26.9%	30%	33.9%
Households with no car or van	19.3%	30.3%	23.5%

Child poverty is DWP, financial year ending 2025. Census measures are ONS, March 2021 — a lockdown snapshot that does not update, useful for how wards differ from each other rather than as this year's conditions. Red marks a measure where this ward is worse than the city average.

Portsmouth North wards compared

Deprived on at least two of employment, education, health and housing at once — the census measure of compounded hardship rather than a single difficulty.

Paulsgrove25.3%

Nelson24.7%

Cosham20.4%

Hilsea17.5%

Baffins15.5%

Copnor14%

Drayton and Farlington10.8%

Portsmouth 19.4% England 18.1%

What this data is, and what it is not

Census 2021 was taken on 21 March 2021, during the third national lockdown. Student and workplace populations were displaced, and the figures do not update between censuses. Read them as a map of how wards differ from each other, not as this year's conditions.

Percentages are a published count divided by the published total for the same table and ward. The counts are ONS; the division is ours.

Project delivery tracker — Portsmouth North

Correct as of 15 September 2026

This data is correct as of 15 September 2026. Each project also carries its own last-checked date, because the public record for different schemes updates at different rates. Where a spend figure is not published, this tracker shows no figure rather than a zero.

Portsmouth International Port — cruise and ferry terminal

Complete

Committed

£11.25m

Spent

£11.25m

Funder

Levelling Up Fund Round 1

Next decision

None outstanding — operational

Detail, accountable body and evidence confidence

The only Levelling Up component with an independently published figure: the port states on its own site that the terminal was made possible through £11.25m of Levelling Up funding, matching the capital programme. Opened to first passengers 20 August 2023. The council’s 2024/25 accounts describe it as fully operational, handling an additional 250,000 passengers a year.

Accountable body. Portsmouth City Council (port is council-owned)

Evidence: Published. Last checked 15 September 2026. Source →

Linear Park and Hilsea Lido

Underway

Committed

£7.75m grant (scheme total since risen to £8.286m)

Spent

£4.85m to March 2025

Funder

Levelling Up Fund Round 1, plus £486k council contribution

Next decision

Completion of the wider linear park beyond the Lido itself

Delay. About a year. The contractor said in June 2024 it would complete in spring 2025 for the summer season; it opened 2 May 2026.

Detail, accountable body and evidence confidence

The grant programme contains a single line called "Linear Park" — there is no separate Hilsea Lido grant line, so the council has never published how much went to the Lido versus the wider park. Government’s January 2023 case study promised children’s water play, event space and spectator areas; the Lido reopened with pool, changing, sauna and pop-up food, and the contractor’s account records the spectator stand was demolished. No descope or clawback appears anywhere in the public record. An FOI is outstanding on the internal split.

Accountable body. Portsmouth City Council

Evidence: Reconstructed. Last checked 15 September 2026. Source →

Investment in football facilities, including changing facilities

Complete

Committed

£1.0m

Spent

£1.0m

Funder

Attributed to Levelling Up Fund — NOT CONFIRMED

Next decision

FOI outstanding to confirm the funding source

Detail, accountable body and evidence confidence

This line carries the same funder code and is needed to make the three components sum to exactly £20m, but no public document connects it to the Levelling Up bid. A Full Council motion of 9 November 2021 listed the Lido, the linear park and the cruise terminal as the LUF projects and mentioned a football bid separately. Treat as inference, not established fact. Both FOI requests ask this question directly.

Accountable body. Portsmouth City Council

Evidence: Inferred. Last checked 15 September 2026. Source →

Hilsea Lines moat restoration and sea defences

Underway

Committed

Not published as a single figure

Spent

Not published

Funder

North Portsea Coastal Scheme Phase 5 — Environment Agency and Coastal Partners

Next decision

Completion of sea-defence work, end of 2026

Detail, accountable body and evidence confidence

Commonly and wrongly attributed to the £20m Levelling Up award. The scheme’s own site attributes it to funding secured by the environment team for 2025/26 and does not identify it as Levelling Up money anywhere. Dredging began September 2025. Crediting a flood-defence scheme to a regeneration grant makes that grant look like it delivered more than it did.

Accountable body. Coastal Partners with the Environment Agency and Portsmouth City Council

Evidence: Published. Last checked 15 September 2026. Source →

Tipner West

Allocated in Local Plan

Committed

No public funding committed

Spent

n/a

Funder

To be determined

Next decision

Local Plan examination

Detail, accountable body and evidence confidence

Housing alongside marine employment space. The sequencing matters: if housing is built first and employment space last, the employment element is the part most at risk of never arriving. That risk is this site’s analysis, not council policy.

Accountable body. Portsmouth City Council

Evidence: Published. Last checked 15 September 2026. Source →

How stage and confidence are defined

Stage uses five levels deliberately: complete, underway, funded but not started, allocated in the Local Plan, and proposed. Allocation is the level most often reported as though it were delivery. Confidence is separate: "Published" means the figure appears in a public document; "Reconstructed" means it was assembled from a capital programme rather than stated; "Inferred" means the attribution is our judgement and could be wrong.

Portsmouth City Council — Cabinet 10 February 2026, capital programme appendices — 2026-02-10
GOV.UK — Levelling Up Fund: first round successful bidders — 2021-10-27
Portsmouth City Council — Statement of Accounts 2024/25 — 2026-02

Projects in this area

No official source publishes projects by Westminster constituency. These are assigned by where each site physically sits, which is our judgement, not a published classification.

Hilsea Lido

Reopened 2 May 2026 after a refurbishment funded from the £20m Levelling Up award for North Portsmouth

Hilsea Lines moat restoration and sea defences

Underway — dredging began September 2025, sea-defence work runs to end of 2026. Funded by the North Portsea Coastal Scheme, NOT the Levelling Up award

Foxes Forest woodland restoration, Hilsea Lines

Underway

Tipner West

Allocated in the Local Plan — marine employment space and housing

Northern Quarter — Cosham and Lakeside North Harbour

Allocated in the Local Plan

Only published for Portsmouth as a whole

These are not broken down to constituency level by the bodies that publish them. Splitting a city-wide figure between the two seats would produce a number that looks local but has not been measured, so it is not done here.

•Employment, earnings, house prices and rents — published for Portsmouth as a whole only.
•Crime rates — published by police force area and local authority, not by constituency.
•Health outcomes including life expectancy — published at local authority level.
•School attainment and absence — published by local authority and by individual school, not by constituency.

See the city-wide data →

Ward-to-constituency allocation follows the current (2024) Westminster boundaries. Portsmouth North and Portsmouth South did not change shape in the 2023 boundary review. Where a statistic exists only for Portsmouth as a whole, that is stated rather than split across the two seats — apportioning an authority-level figure by population would produce a number that looks local but is not measured.

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