A Growing ‘Posh-Poor Divide’: The Way Prosperity and Deprivation Now Sit Cheek by Jowl in England.

Within a postwar estate known as ‘The Nunny’, inhabitants live in properties only several yards from their more affluent counterparts in the adjacent Scartho. A six-foot-tall wall literally divides the two areas in the town of Grimsby, sealing off roads and walkways that once connected them.

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

An Increasingly Common Pattern Across the Country

Data from official statistics shows how deep disparity often exists, sometimes across little more than a few metres of asphalt, a line of hedges or a barrier. Decades of budget cuts and lack of funding have led to a situation where a majority of local authorities now have a neighbourhood classified as one of the poorest in the country.

This spread of poverty has coincided with a sharp increase in the number of places where disadvantaged and affluent residents find themselves as immediate neighbours. In 2019, only 65 of the poorest areas bordered one of the wealthiest. That figure increased to 119 in the latest data.

A Barrier Which Divides More Than Land

In Grimsby, the divide is the biggest in the country and painfully obvious. The wall transcends being just a symbolic division; it creates very real problems for everyday life.

• School runs that ought to take a quarter of an hour turn into an hour-long detour.
• Reaching important services like supermarkets, schools and care homes is made more difficult.
• The site can attract antisocial behaviour, with reports of litter being thrown over the wall and related issues.

“People strive to have a well-kept home and garden, and then you live opposite that,” noted one resident, motioning at the corroded metal wall.

Community Spirit Amidst Hardship

At Centre4, staff stress that support does not recognise postcodes. “Where you live is not a reliable indicator of your personal struggles,” said chief executive a community leader.

Regardless of ranking in the lowest 10% for multiple deprivation indicators, the estate retains a strong sense and feeling of community among its residents. Meanwhile, Scartho is classified among the most prosperous 10% nationally.

Echoes Elsewhere: Stanhope in Ashford

This pattern is repeated nationally. The Stanhope area in Ashford, Kent, a mid-century overspill estate, is in the most disadvantaged tenth of neighbourhoods in England. It is closely bordered by large houses built in the early 2000s that sit in the wealthiest tenth for job prospects and quality of surroundings.

“They may possess bigger houses, but here there’s a stronger community,” commented Phil Hockley, aged 63. “You’ll probably find many people in the new builds never even talk to each other.”

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

Residents describe a tangible feeling of being overlooked. “Our neighbourhood gets ignored,” stated holistic health worker Susan Riley-Nevers. “In this area our amenities have slowly been taken away, and most of the community problems here are to do with financial hardship.”

The rise in these ‘deprivation divides’ paints a picture of an increasingly segregated society, where wealth and deprivation are frequently awkwardly close neighbours.