The Rising ‘Wealth-Poverty Gap’: How Prosperity and Hardship Now Sit Cheek by Jowl in England.

In a postwar estate known as ‘The Nunny’, inhabitants live in homes only several yards from their wealthier neighbours in the adjacent Scartho. One six-foot-tall wall literally divides the two areas in the town of Grimsby, blocking off paths and streets that previously linked them.

“It’s the posh-poor divide,” remarked Serenity Colley, aged 37. “It’s been like this since 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

Data from official figures shows how deep disparity can run, sometimes over little more than a few metres of tarmac, a hedge row or a wall. Decades of austerity and underinvestment have led to a situation where a majority of local authorities now contain a neighbourhood ranking as one of the most deprived in the nation.

This spread of deprivation has coincided with a significant rise in the quantity of places where deprived and affluent residents find themselves as immediate neighbours. In 2019, just 65 of the poorest neighbourhoods adjoined one of the least deprived. That figure rose to 119 in the most recent data.

A Barrier Which Divides More Than Land

In Grimsby, the divide is the biggest in the UK and starkly obvious. The wall transcends being just a symbolic division; it causes very real difficulties for everyday life.

• School runs that ought to take a quarter of an hour become an sixty-minute detour.
• Reaching key services like supermarkets, schools and employment centres is hindered.
• The site can attract antisocial behaviour, with reports of rubbish being thrown over the wall and related problems.

“People strive to maintain a well-kept home and garden, and then you reside facing that,” said one resident, gesturing towards the rusted barricade.

Local Bonds Against a Backdrop of Hardship

Within Centre4, workers stress that support transcends postcodes. “Where you live doesn’t necessarily indicate your level of challenge,” said chief executive a community leader.

Regardless of ranking in the lowest 10% for multiple deprivation indicators, the estate boasts a strong sense and feeling of community among its inhabitants. Meanwhile, Scartho 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 1960s overspill estate, is in the most disadvantaged tenth of areas in England. It is closely bordered by large houses built in the 2000s that are in the top 10% for job prospects and quality of surroundings.

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

The economic divide is evident: an average family home sells for about £275,000 on the Stanhope estate, while across the divide comparable homes go for about £410,000.

Locals describe a palpable sense of being overlooked. “Our neighbourhood gets ignored,” stated resident Susan Riley-Nevers. “In this area our facilities have gradually disappeared, and the majority of the issues we face here are to do with poverty.”

The increase in these ‘inequality borders’ presents a picture of an increasingly divided England, where prosperity and deprivation are frequently awkwardly in close proximity.