The Rising ‘Wealth-Poverty Gap’: How Affluence and Hardship Are Found Side by Side in Across England.
In a postwar estate known as ‘The Nunny’, residents occupy homes only several yards from their wealthier counterparts in nearby Scartho. One 1.8-metre-high barricade physically separates the two communities in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, sealing off paths and streets that once linked them.
“This is the posh-poor divide,” said Serenity Colley, 37. “It has been there for as long as I’ve known. I doubt they’ll bring it down because I don’t think they’ll want to mix with us.”
An Increasingly Common National Picture
Analysis of government statistics reveals the extent of inequality often exists, at times across little more than a few metres of tarmac, a hedge row or a barrier. Decades of budget cuts and lack of funding have led to a situation where a majority of councils now contain a locality classified as one of the most deprived in the nation.
This spread of deprivation has coincided with a sharp increase in the number of locations where deprived and affluent people find themselves as immediate neighbours. In 2019, just 65 of the poorest neighbourhoods bordered one of the wealthiest. This number rose to 119 in the most recent data.
A Wall That Divides More Than Space
At this Lincolnshire site, the divide is the biggest in the UK and painfully apparent. The barrier is much more than a symbolic division; it causes tangible problems for everyday life.
- The school commute that ought to take a quarter of an hour turn into an sixty-minute detour.
- Reaching key amenities like supermarkets, educational facilities and employment centres is made more difficult.
- The area often sees antisocial behaviour, with reports of rubbish being dumped over the wall and other problems.
“You try to maintain a nice house and nice garden, and then you reside facing that,” said one local, gesturing towards the rusted barricade.
Local Bonds Against a Backdrop of Challenges
At Centre4, staff emphasise that support does not recognise addresses. “Your postcode doesn’t necessarily indicate your personal struggles,” said chief executive a community leader.
Regardless of being placed in the most deprived 10% for income, employment, education, health and crime, Nunsthorpe retains a fierce loyalty and feeling of community among its inhabitants. By contrast, the neighbouring area ranks among the least deprived 10% overall.
A Similar Story: Stanhope in Ashford
This pattern is mirrored nationally. The Stanhope area in Ashford, Kent, a mid-century housing development, is in the 10% most deprived of neighbourhoods in the country. It is closely bordered by large detached homes built in the early 2000s that are in the wealthiest tenth for employment and living environment.
“They might have larger properties, but here there’s more community,” said a long-term resident, aged 63. “It’s likely many people in the new builds never even talk to each other.”
The financial divide is evident: an average family home sells for about £275,000 on the estate, while across the divide comparable homes fetch about £410,000.
Locals speak of a palpable sense of neglect. “This part of the community gets ignored,” said resident Susan Riley-Nevers. “Over here our amenities have slowly been taken away, and most of the community problems here are related to financial hardship.”
The rise in these ‘inequality borders’ presents a picture of an increasingly segregated England, where prosperity and deprivation are frequently awkwardly close neighbours.
