Crap Towns / West Midlands / Brierley Hill
Brierley Hill
56/100Crap Score
435th crappest of 984 towns, and 19th in the West Midlands. Higher scores are crapper.
Have your say
Crap Town of the Year 2026/27
See the raceThe public vote. It's separate from the Crap Score, and it closes on 31 December 2027.
Letters from the locals
Got something to say about Brierley Hill? Write in.
agree it's crap have defended it
The shopping centre ate the High Street
The steelworks became a shopping centre. The High Street became To Let signs.
Brierley Hill made steel and glass. Then they stuck a giant shopping centre on the steelworks and left the High Street to rot. It's rotted far enough that the High Street itself is now on the Heritage at Risk register. What's left is empty shops, vape shops, Greggs and To Let signs. The canal locks at the Delph are nice. Nobody goes. Nobody goes anywhere but the shopping centre.
Crime sits at nearly half as much again as the typical town's, with the burglars, car thieves and shoplifters all keeping busy, and deliberate fires at three times the typical town's rate, mostly bins. Dudley's council tax is cheap, to be fair. You get what you pay for.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Brierley Hill's 87 for deliberate fires means it's crapper than 87% of towns.
- Deliberate fires87/10017.0 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Air pollution82/10011.0 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.4 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Food hygiene74/1003.9% rated 0 to 2, of the 230 food businesses with a rating
- Serious road collisions69/1003.0 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Criminal damage and arson66/1008.2 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Rain56/100131 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Sewage spills40/100177 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Fly-tipping36/1008.4 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Dudley council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Anti-social behaviour29/1007.8 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Broadband9/1002.9% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 2.8% across the Dudley council area
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 15 | Bilston | 68 |
| 16 | Pelsall | 65 |
| 17 | Wolverhampton | 58 |
| 18 | Coventry | 57 |
| 19 | Brierley Hill | 56 |
| 20 | Rowley Regis | 41 |
| 21 | Stourbridge | 41 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.22 | Royal Sutton Coldfield | 36 |
| 23 | Aldridge | 36 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Brierley Hill by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 111 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Worse: 46% higher than the typical town's 76.2
- 141 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 43.6 per 10,000 people, 12.8x the typical town's 3.4
- 5 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2023
What's left on the high street
- 24 pubs, 30 hairdressers, 5 charity shops, 2 bookmakers, 4 vape shops, 9 banks, 3 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 2.4% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (1 of 41) Better: 40% lower than the typical town's 4.0%
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Better: 3.1 per 100,000 people, 9% lower than the typical town's 3.4
- 1 library shut for good since 2010: Quarry Bank Library Link (2024)
- 4 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Worse: 1.2 per 10,000 people, 25% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- 3 public swimming pools open; 1 closed for good since 2010 Better: 0.9 per 10,000 people, 29% higher than the typical English town's 0.7
- 1 place on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.58pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.2% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 60% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 22.7% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 46% higher than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,499 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Dudley council
Have a crap-off
Brierley Hill against your mate's town, and a match ticket to rub it in.
- ?Fly-tippingper 1,000, council area?
- ?Anti-social behaviourper 1,000 people?
- ?Serious road crashesper 10,000 people?
- ?Sewage spillshours per 10,000 people?
- ?Food hygienerated poor?
- ?Criminal damageper 1,000 people?
- ?Dirty airµg/m³?
- ?No gigabitof premises can't get it?
- ?Deliberate firesper 10,000 people?
- ?Raindays a year?
Ten ingredients. One verdict. Who's crapper? The higher Crap Score takes it.