The Growing ‘Posh-Poor Divide’: How Prosperity and Deprivation Are Found Cheek by Jowl in England.

Within Nunsthorpe, residents live in homes only a few metres from their more affluent counterparts in the adjacent Scartho village. A six-foot-tall wall physically divides the two areas in the town of Grimsby, blocking off paths and streets that previously connected them.

“It’s the divide between rich and poor,” remarked Serenity Colley, 37. “It has been there for as long as I’ve known. I doubt they’ll bring it down because I suspect they’ll want to mix with us.”

An Increasingly Common Pattern Across the Country

Data from government statistics shows the extent of inequality can run, at times across nothing more than a short distance of asphalt, a line of hedges or a barrier. Decades of austerity and lack of funding mean almost two-thirds of local authorities now contain a locality ranking as one of the most deprived in the nation.

The spread of deprivation has led to a sharp increase in the number of locations where disadvantaged and affluent residents end up as immediate neighbours. In 2019, just 65 of the poorest neighbourhoods bordered one of the least deprived. That figure increased to 119 in the most recent data.

A Wall That Divides More Than Space

In Grimsby, the gap is the most pronounced in the country and painfully apparent. The barrier is much more than a metaphorical divide; it causes tangible problems for everyday life.

• The school commute that ought to take a quarter of an hour turn into an sixty-minute journey.
• Reaching key amenities like grocery stores, educational facilities and employment centres is hindered.
• The site can attract antisocial behaviour, with instances of litter being dumped over the wall and other problems.

“You try to maintain a nice house and nice garden, and then you live opposite that,” noted one resident, motioning at the corroded barricade.

Local Bonds Against a Backdrop of Hardship

At a local community centre, workers stress that need transcends postcodes. “Your postcode is not a reliable indicator of your level of challenge,” said director a community leader.

Despite being placed in the lowest 10% for multiple deprivation indicators, the estate boasts a strong sense and feeling of community among its inhabitants. Meanwhile, the neighbouring area is classified among the most prosperous 10% overall.

Echoes Elsewhere: An Estate in Kent

This phenomenon is repeated nationally. The Stanhope area in Ashford, Kent, a 1960s overspill estate, is in the 10% most deprived of neighbourhoods in the country. It is immediately adjacent by spacious detached homes built in the 2000s that sit in the top 10% for employment and living environment.

“They might have bigger houses, but here there’s a stronger community,” said Phil Hockley, 63. “You’ll probably find many people over there never even talk to each other.”

The economic gap is evident: an typical three-bedroom house sells for about £275,000 on the estate, while across the divide equivalent properties go for about £410,000.

Residents describe a palpable feeling of neglect. “This part of the community gets ignored,” stated resident Susan. “In this area our amenities have gradually disappeared, and the majority of the issues we face here are related to financial hardship.”

The rise in these ‘deprivation divides’ presents a picture of an increasingly divided society, where wealth and deprivation are often uncomfortably close neighbours.