A Growing ‘Posh-Poor Divide’: The Way Affluence and Hardship Now Sit Side by Side in England.

Within Nunsthorpe, residents occupy homes only several yards from their wealthier neighbours in the adjacent Scartho. A six-foot-tall barricade literally divides the two areas in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, sealing off roads and walkways that once connected them.

“This is the divide between rich and poor,” said Serenity Colley, 37. “It’s been like this for as long as I’ve known. I don’t think they’ll take it down because I suspect they’ll want to mix with us.”

A Stark National Picture

Data from government figures shows the extent of inequality can run, at times over little more than a short distance of asphalt, a line of hedges or a barrier. Decades of austerity and lack of funding mean a majority of local authorities now have a neighbourhood ranking as one of the poorest in the nation.

The spread of deprivation has coincided with a significant increase in the quantity of locations where deprived and affluent residents find themselves as immediate neighbours. In 2019, just 65 of the most deprived areas bordered one of the wealthiest. This number rose to 119 in the latest data.

A Wall That Divides More Than Space

At this Lincolnshire site, the gap is the biggest in the country and painfully obvious. The wall transcends being just a symbolic divide; it creates very real problems for everyday life.

• The school commute that ought to take a quarter of an hour become an sixty-minute detour.
• Access to key amenities like supermarkets, schools and employment centres is made more difficult.
• The area often sees antisocial behaviour, with instances of litter being dumped over the wall and related problems.

“People strive to have a nice house and nice garden, and then you live opposite that,” noted one resident, gesturing towards the corroded metal wall.

Community Spirit Against a Backdrop of Challenges

Within a local community centre, workers stress that support transcends addresses. “Where you live doesn’t necessarily indicate your level of challenge,” said chief executive a community leader.

Regardless of being placed in the lowest 10% for income, employment, education, health and crime, the estate boasts a fierce loyalty and sense of community among its residents. By contrast, Scartho is classified among the most prosperous 10% nationally.

Echoes Elsewhere: Stanhope in Ashford

This phenomenon is mirrored across the country. The Stanhope estate in Ashford, Kent, a mid-century housing development, is in the most disadvantaged tenth of areas in the country. It is immediately adjacent by spacious houses built in the early 2000s that are in the wealthiest tenth for job prospects and living environment.

“They might have bigger houses, but here there’s more community,” said a long-term resident, aged 63. “It’s likely many people over there never even talk to each other.”

The economic divide is evident: an average three-bedroom house sells for about £275,000 on the Stanhope estate, while on the other side comparable properties go for about £410,000.

Residents speak of a palpable sense of being overlooked. “Our neighbourhood is neglected,” stated resident Susan Riley-Nevers. “Over here our facilities have slowly been taken away, and most of the community problems here are to do with poverty.”

The increase in these ‘deprivation divides’ paints a picture of an ever more divided society, where prosperity and need are often uncomfortably in close proximity.