The future is bright for an area of Clacton-on-Sea named as one of Britain's worst "Benefit ghettos" because the situation is "as bad as it's going to get".
That is according to the leader of Tendring District Council Peter Halliday, who says the only way is up for Clacton's Pier Ward.
His comments come after the ward was named as one of Britain's worst "Benefit ghettos" in a report released by The Centre For Social Justice.
Some 54 per cent of people aged 16 to 64 in Clacton's Pier Ward are claiming out-of-work benefits – the fifth-highest rate in England and Wales.
The ward joins others including parts of Denbighshire, Birmingham, Blackburn, Wirral and North East Lincolnshire, where more than half the working age residents depend on out-of-work benefits.
The report is a major new investigation into the make-up of the welfare state. It features a "league table" of the 20 neighbourhoods in the UK where out-of-work dependency is highest.
The Rhyl West ward in Denbighshire topped the list, with 67 per cent of people aged 16-64 living there claiming out-of-work benefits.
Reflecting on the report Peter Halliday, the leader of Tendring District Council, told This is Essex: "It's not surprising. We know what the statistics are and what the issues are. That's why we are doing what we're doing.
"It's always disappointing to get that negative press when we are trying to do positive things."
The council leader added: "It's got as bad as it's going to get and it would have got worse if it was not for the work we've done. We've hit the bottom of the spiral of decline.
"I'm very optimistic about the future. Especially with what we have seen happen in the space of two years and what we have seen nationally, with people holidaying in the UK."
Mr Halliday explained the council's strategy for tackling the issues faced in the Pier Ward: "We're trying to push the benefits of the healthy seafront intro the surrounding streets," he said.
"The Pier have spent lots of money. The Pavillion site has undergone a multi-million pound conversion and now has a bowling alley, and £2 million of private investment has created 40 to 50 new jobs.
"We are also investing in concessions such as a seafront café, and improving the building to make it look more upmarket. It steps up the quality.
"We've also opened up the seafront gardens and in the town centre, the spine of the Pier Ward, we've got new paving and a fountain in the middle. It has made the town centre quite something.
"But you put all that work in and then someone comes along and starts washing their clothes in the fountain. It's that bizarre mix that we're trying to sort."
Mr Halliday also spoke of a £30 million seafront development scheme the council hopes will be finalised by September. Some £6 million has already been earmarked for the scheme, which is aimed at rejuvenating the area from the beaches to Holland-on-Sea.
The council hopes work will begin late 2014 or early 2015.
Mr Halliday said the council has also worked to tighten up housing policy and the tax council discount scheme.
"You have to have lived in the district for five years before you are entitled to the tax council discount scheme," he said. "It was very painful getting that through but we see it as a necessity."
Reflecting on the percentage of people in the ward on benefits, Mr Halliday said: "The Pier Ward has been the victim of a downturn in the tourism industry since the 1960s, and that spiral of decline has been allowed to continue and here we are.
"Where before there were B&Bs and a focus on tourism, now it's a market for cheap accommodation. It's the nature of housing stock across seaside towns everywhere."
But the council leader acknowledged a life on benefits must be made more difficult. "It's not an attack on welfare but we need to put a stop to it," he said.
According to the report from The Centre For Social Justice, in Liverpool there are nearly 70 neighbourhoods where the number of people claiming out-of-work benefits is 30 per cent or higher.
This is followed by Birmingham (49 neighbourhoods), Hull (45), Manchester (40), Leeds (37) and Knowsley (31).
Across the country, 6.8 million people are living in a home where no one has a job. Nearly one fifth of UK children (1.8 million) are growing up in a workless household - the second-highest rate in the European Union).
The vast majority of charities helping the unemployed surveyed in the report say they know of families where two or three generations have no one in work.
CSJ Managing Director Christian Guy said: "The welfare ghettos trapping as many as 6.8 million people are a national disgrace. They represent years of tragic failure and indifference from the political class.
"People in these neighbourhoods have been consistently written off as incapable and their poverty plight inevitable. Their lives have been limited by a fatalistic assumption that they have little prospect of anything better.
"While some campaigners accuse this Government of being callous for its benefit cap, the truth is there has been a much more damaging welfare cap in these communities for years – an unjust cap on personal potential."
