The Growing ‘Posh-Poor Divide’: How Prosperity and Hardship Are Found Cheek by Jowl in Across England.
Within Nunsthorpe, inhabitants live in homes just a few metres from their wealthier neighbours in the adjacent Scartho village. One 1.8-metre-high wall physically separates the two communities 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 since I’ve known. I doubt they’ll bring it down because I don’t think they’ll want to associate with us.”
An Increasingly Common National Picture
Data from official statistics reveals the extent of inequality often exists, sometimes across nothing more than a short distance of tarmac, a line of hedges or a wall. Years of budget cuts and lack of funding have led to a situation where a majority of councils now have a neighbourhood ranking as one of the most deprived in the country.
The geographical widening of deprivation has coincided with a sharp rise in the quantity of locations where deprived and affluent people find themselves as immediate neighbours. Just a few years ago, only 65 of the poorest neighbourhoods bordered one of the wealthiest. This number rose to 119 in the latest data.
A Barrier Which Divides More Than Land
In Grimsby, the divide is the most pronounced in the UK and starkly obvious. The wall transcends being just a symbolic divide; it creates tangible difficulties for everyday life.
- School runs that should take a quarter of an hour become an sixty-minute journey.
- Reaching key services like grocery stores, schools and care homes is hindered.
- The area can attract vandalism and loitering, with instances of litter being thrown over the wall and other problems.
“People strive to maintain a nice house and nice garden, and then you reside facing that,” said one local, motioning at the rusted metal wall.
Community Spirit Against a Backdrop of Hardship
Within a local community centre, staff stress that need transcends addresses. “Where you live is not a reliable indicator of your personal struggles,” said chief executive Tracey Good.
Despite ranking in the most deprived 10% for income, employment, education, health and crime, Nunsthorpe retains a fierce loyalty and sense of togetherness among its inhabitants. By contrast, the neighbouring area ranks among the most prosperous 10% overall.
A Similar Story: An Estate in Kent
This phenomenon is mirrored nationally. The Stanhope estate in Ashford, Kent, a 1960s overspill estate, is in the 10% most deprived of areas in England. It is immediately adjacent by spacious houses built in the early 2000s that are in the top 10% for job prospects and living environment.
“They might have larger properties, but here there’s more community,” commented Phil Hockley, 63. “It’s likely a lot of people in the new builds don’t even speak to each other.”
The economic gap is evident: an typical family home sells for about £275,000 on the Stanhope estate, while on the other side equivalent properties fetch about £410,000.
Locals speak of a tangible sense of being overlooked. “Our neighbourhood gets ignored,” said holistic health worker Susan Riley-Nevers. “In this area our amenities have slowly been taken away, and the majority of the community problems here are related to financial hardship.”
The rise in these ‘deprivation divides’ presents a portrait of an increasingly segregated England, where prosperity and deprivation are frequently awkwardly close neighbours.
