Thanet is one of the worst places in the UK for deaths from heroin and morphine overdoses, according to a new report.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), every five deaths per 100,000 in the district were related to such overdoses from 2014-2016 - and only seven areas in England and Wales had more.

Six of the 10 local authority districts with the highest rates of heroin and/or morphine-misuse deaths are coastal holiday resorts, with the rate in Blackpool, which topped the list, twice as high as anywhere else.

Shepway was the second highest area of Kent for such deaths with 4.2 per every 100,000 people, followed by Medway at 3.9, and Swale with 3.

Public Health England has suggested a link between areas of higher deprivation and drugs misuse, saying in a report that “social factors, including housing, employment and deprivation, are associated with substance misuse and these social factors moderate drug treatment outcomes.”

There were 3,744 drug poisoning deaths involving both legal and illegal drugs registered across England and Wales in 2016. Of those, 69% were from drug misuse, compared to 38% in 1993.

Meanwhile the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs linked an increase in heroin misuse deaths to a “deepening socio-economic deprivation” since the financial crisis of 2008.

According to the ONS, the rise has been linked to the so-called "Trainspotting generation" which became addicted to heroin in the 1980s and 90s.

They go on to say that this generational addiction may explain why the highest rate of death from drugs misuse in 2016 was among 40 to 49-year-olds, overtaking 30 to 39-year-olds for the first time.