Inside a brick smokehouse on Grimsby’s once-bustling docks, Patrick Salmon is doing what generation upon generation here once did… working hard.
His artisan smoked fish, preserved in chambers blackened by a century of tar, will wend its way to Britain’s most celebrated chefs, including Tom Kerridge, Marco Pierre White and Raymond Blanc.
But Mr Salmon’s work as the owner of the Alfred Enderby smokehouse is less glamorous: the 62-year-old works 12-hour days, six days a week, and sometimes longer.
But when he looks around at the town where he has spent his entire working life putting in such long shifts, he feels increasingly at odds with his fellow residents – and wonders why he bothers.
Because this is Grimsby’s East Marsh and Port district, the neighbourhood identified as Britain’s worklessness capital, according to figures from the House of Commons library.
Of East Marsh and Port’s 3,492 working-age residents, 48.9 per cent are unemployed Universal Credit claimants.