For years, the “numbered streets” in Horden have inspired dread among even the most hardened of local residents. Plagued by endemic crime and chronic poverty, some villagers are even afraid to venture onto them in daylight.

So, when a new community centre opened last month in the middle of the 13 numbered terraced streets, no one quite knew what to expect. Within days, a melancholy truth emerged: living conditions in Horden – a former mining village in County Durham and one of the most deprived places in Britain – were even worse than had been thought.

Paula Snowdon, who runs the Hub House, a converted end-of-terrace community centre on Seventh Street, describes malnourished families begging for food. “Most had received benefit sanctions and were basically starving when they came to us,” she said. Others turned up wanting little more than a chat. “We had individuals who hadn’t spoken to another person for days, sometimes weeks. Solitude is a major issue.”

Some asked only to sit on the Hub’s sofa; private landlords lease homes without furniture in the numbered streets, forcing many tenants to live without the luxury of settees. Some arrived seeking refuge from the network of drug dealers that has infested the village: one resident on Eleventh Street counts six dealers among its 54 red-bricked properties. Yet what astonished Snowdon most was the prevalence of mental illness.

“The actual way of life around here causes problems. I would say that 85% have a mental health illness such as anxiety and depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder. Children are born into deprivation and high unemployment: people feel forgotten about.”

The Hub was created by the Coalfields Regeneration Trust (CRT), an agency tasked with improving the quality of life in former mining areas. Although largely neglected by contemporary Whitehall policy, Britain’s former coal regions have 5.5 million people living in them, one in 12 of Britain’s population. Collectively, the communities in 16 former coalfields are statistically distinct from the rest of the UK, with significantly higher levels of deprivation, illness and unemployment. In these former mining regions, 7.9% of the population – nearly 440,000 people – claim disability benefits, compared with 5.6% nationally and 4.3% in the south-east.

Employment opportunities have yet to fully replace the jobs lost in the collieries, with 14% of adults in the coalfields out of work and on benefits, 40% higher than the national average. Horden’s pit closed in 1987.

Across the coalfields, there are 50 jobs for every 100 residents of working age compared with 80 in the south-east. Life expectancy in coalfield areas is around a year less than the national average.

Horden is, even by these standards, an acute case. Data collated three months ago found that 4,985 of its 7,585 population were categorised as being among the most deprived 20% of England.

Other indices underline the sense of a community in need. Four in 10 Hordenites have zero qualifications compared with 22% across England, while the proportion living in poverty is 39%, double the rate across England.

Dominoes and cards at the miners’ welfare club at Horden Colliery, 1964. Photograph: Heritage Images/Getty

Such figures, alongside the sense that conditions are deteriorating, have compelled the CRT to create a blueprint which it believes can reverse the fortunes of Britain’s coalfields.

Next month, a delegation from the trust will meet the minister responsible for the “northern powerhouse”, Jake Berry, to discuss a proposition to build industrial and commercial space that will allow small businesses to flourish. Officials believe that £30m of state funding over four years will bring in three times that amount in direct investment, along with a sustainable income of £2m each year that will be invested to deliver bespoke projects like the Hub House.

Andy Lock, the CRT’s head of operations in England, said: “We know communities like Horden are not feeling the benefit of the investment in our major towns and cities, but our offer will address this. We just need government support to help it become a reality.”

Last Wednesday, Theresa May visited Teesside, some 12 miles south along the coast, to re-emphasise her support for the northern powerhouse, but few in Horden expect to feel much benefit.

Similarly, the North-East Local Enterprise Partnership, created to boost regional economic growth, appears to have delivered scant benefit to the numbered streets; a third of the housing stock lies boarded up on Twelfth Street or has been converted into drug dens. Two years ago, a local housing association offered to sell 130 Horden homes to Durham council for £1 each. The council turned the offer down.

During May’s trip to the north-east, much was made of the need to improve the north’s transport infrastructure, with the prime minister admitting “further progress must be made” on links between its big cities. But it is evident that isolated communities like Horden are not a priority.

A street in Horden, Co Durham, where one local community worker estimates that 85% of the local population struggle with mental health. Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

Close to the sea – Second Street lies 450 yards from Durham’s Heritage Coast – Horden has no rail station. To reach Sunderland, seven miles north, one must take a circuitous sequence of buses that turns what should be a straightforward trip into an odyssey. “If you work there it becomes impossible,” said Alan Bennett, a Hub volunteer.

Despite the neglect, the coalfield areas have become a relatively happy hunting ground for the Conservatives. All but one of the local authority districts within coalfield areas voted for Brexit, and despite a disappointing result nationally May still won a handful of seats in previously hostile former mining areas. Lock points out the Tory vote in many coalfield constituencies actually increased and says the CRT’s proposition offers the government a way of showing they care for previously abandoned areas. “The Tories should be asking ‘how can we further change the perception of as a party in these Labour heartlands.”

Already the Hub House stands as a testament to the possibility of change. The centre has been inundated with volunteers and more than 200 locals have so far passed through its door. Snowdon says that attacks by vandals – inflamed by rumours that it was a police “grass house” – have ceased and an embryonic sense of civic pride is detectable. One surefire hit has been the enthusiastic uptake of free dog-poo bags to tackle the fouling of pavements.

“The Hub House is already making a huge difference to people who face some very difficult challenges, and demonstrates the impact you can have tackling mental health, debt, housing issues and employability with a relatively modest investment,” says Lock.

On Thursday evening, residents crowded into the Hub for a screening of I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach’s critique of the benefits system in nearby Newcastle – a film that had resonance for many of those present. A computer literacy course has been arranged to help Hordenites navigate the online benefits system without risking sanctions.

Snowdon said: “People want to aspire to do better. You just need to give them hope.”