The Rising ‘Wealth-Poverty Gap’: The Way Prosperity and Deprivation Are Found Cheek by Jowl in England.

Within Nunsthorpe, inhabitants live in homes just a few metres from their more affluent neighbours in nearby Scartho. One six-foot-tall wall literally divides the two communities in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, sealing off paths and streets that once linked them.

“This is the posh-poor divide,” said Serenity Colley, aged 37. “It has been there for as long as I’ve known. I doubt they’ll take it down because I don’t think they’ll want to associate with us.”

An Increasingly Common National Picture

Data from government statistics shows how deep disparity can run, sometimes over nothing more than a few metres of asphalt, a hedge row or a barrier. Years of budget cuts and underinvestment have led to a situation where a majority of local authorities now contain a locality ranking as one of the poorest in the nation.

The geographical widening of poverty has coincided with a sharp rise in the number of locations where deprived and affluent people end up living side by side. In 2019, just 65 of the poorest neighbourhoods adjoined one of the least deprived. This number increased to 119 in the latest data.

A Barrier Which Divides More Than Land

At this Lincolnshire site, the divide is the most pronounced in the country and painfully apparent. The barrier is much more than a symbolic divide; it creates very real difficulties for daily routines.

• School runs that should take a quarter of an hour become an sixty-minute detour.
• Access to important amenities like grocery stores, schools and care homes is hindered.
• The site can attract antisocial behaviour, with reports of rubbish being dumped over the wall and other issues.

“You try to maintain a nice house and nice garden, and then you live opposite that,” said one local, gesturing towards the rusted barricade.

Local Bonds Against a Backdrop of Hardship

At Centre4, staff stress that need does not recognise postcodes. “Your postcode doesn’t necessarily indicate your level of challenge,” said chief executive Tracey Good.

Regardless of ranking in the most deprived 10% for income, employment, education, health and crime, the estate retains a strong sense and sense of togetherness among its inhabitants. Meanwhile, the neighbouring area ranks among the least deprived 10% overall.

Echoes Elsewhere: An Estate in Kent

This pattern is repeated nationally. The Stanhope area in Ashford, Kent, a mid-century housing development, is in the most disadvantaged tenth of neighbourhoods in the country. It is closely bordered by spacious houses built in the early 2000s that are in the wealthiest tenth for job prospects and living environment.

“They may possess larger properties, but here there’s a stronger community,” commented a long-term resident, 63. “It’s likely a lot of people in the new builds don’t even speak to each other.”

The financial divide is clear: an typical three-bedroom house costs about £275,000 on the estate, while across the divide equivalent properties go for about £410,000.

Locals speak of a palpable feeling of being overlooked. “Our neighbourhood gets ignored,” said holistic health worker Susan Riley-Nevers. “Over here our amenities have gradually disappeared, and the majority of the community problems here are to do with financial hardship.”

The rise in these ‘inequality borders’ paints a picture of an increasingly segregated society, where wealth and need are frequently uncomfortably in close proximity.