A Growing ‘Posh-Poor Divide’: How Affluence and Hardship Are Found Cheek by Jowl in England.
Within Nunsthorpe, inhabitants live in homes only several yards from their more affluent neighbours in nearby Scartho village. One 1.8-metre-high wall literally divides the two communities in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, sealing off paths and streets that once linked them.
“This is the divide between rich and poor,” remarked Serenity Colley, 37. “It’s been like this for as long as I’ve known. I doubt they’ll take it down because I suspect they’ll want to mix with us.”
A Stark Pattern Across the Country
Data from official statistics reveals the extent of inequality often exists, sometimes across nothing more than a few metres of tarmac, a line of hedges or a barrier. Years of budget cuts and underinvestment mean a majority of councils now have a neighbourhood ranking as one of the most deprived in the country.
This spread of deprivation has coincided with a significant increase in the quantity of locations where disadvantaged and affluent residents find themselves living side by side. In 2019, only 65 of the poorest areas adjoined one of the least deprived. This number increased to 119 in the latest data.
A Wall That Does More Than Separate Space
At this Lincolnshire site, the divide is the most pronounced in the UK and starkly apparent. The barrier is much more than a symbolic division; it creates very real difficulties for daily routines.
- School runs that ought to take a quarter of an hour become an hour-long detour.
- Access to key amenities like supermarkets, educational facilities and care homes is hindered.
- The site can attract antisocial behaviour, with reports of rubbish being thrown over the wall and other issues.
“People strive to have a nice house and nice garden, and then you live opposite that,” noted one resident, motioning at the corroded barricade.
Local Bonds Against a Backdrop of Hardship
At Centre4, workers emphasise that support does not recognise postcodes. “Your postcode doesn’t necessarily indicate your personal struggles,” said director Tracey Good.
Regardless of being placed in the lowest 10% for multiple deprivation indicators, the estate boasts a fierce loyalty and feeling of community among its inhabitants. By contrast, the neighbouring area is classified among the most prosperous 10% overall.
Echoes Elsewhere: An Estate in Kent
This phenomenon is repeated across the country. The Stanhope estate in Ashford, Kent, a mid-century overspill estate, is in the most disadvantaged tenth of neighbourhoods in the country. It is immediately adjacent by spacious houses built in the early 2000s that sit in the top 10% for job prospects and living environment.
“They may possess bigger houses, but here there’s more community,” commented a long-term resident, aged 63. “You’ll probably find a lot of people in the new builds don’t even speak to each other.”
The financial divide is clear: an average three-bedroom house sells for about £275,000 on the estate, while across the divide equivalent properties fetch 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 the majority of the issues we face here are to do with financial hardship.”
The rise in these ‘inequality borders’ paints a picture of an ever more segregated England, where prosperity and need are frequently uncomfortably close neighbours.
