A Rising ‘Posh-Poor Divide’: The Way Affluence and Deprivation Are Found Side by Side in England.

In a postwar estate known as ‘The Nunny’, residents occupy homes just several yards from their more affluent counterparts in the adjacent Scartho. A six-foot-tall barricade literally divides the two communities in the town of Grimsby, sealing off paths and streets that previously linked them.

“This is the divide between rich and poor,” remarked Serenity Colley, 37. “It has been there since I’ve known. I don’t think they’ll take it down because I suspect they’ll want to associate with us.”

An Increasingly Common Pattern Across the Country

Analysis of government figures reveals how deep inequality can run, sometimes over nothing more than a few metres of asphalt, a hedge row or a barrier. Years of austerity and lack of funding mean a majority of local authorities now contain a locality classified as one of the poorest in the country.

The spread of poverty has coincided with a sharp rise in the number of places where deprived and well-off residents find themselves as immediate neighbours. In 2019, only 65 of the poorest areas adjoined one of the least deprived. This number increased to 119 in the most recent data.

A Barrier Which Divides More Than Land

In Grimsby, the divide is the most pronounced in the country and painfully obvious. The wall is much more than a symbolic division; it causes tangible difficulties for daily routines.

• School runs that should take 15-20 minutes turn into an hour-long journey.
• Reaching important services like supermarkets, educational facilities and care homes is made more difficult.
• The area often sees vandalism and loitering, with reports of rubbish being dumped over the wall and other issues.

“You try to have a nice house and nice garden, and then you live opposite that,” noted one resident, motioning at the corroded barricade.

Community Spirit Against a Backdrop of Challenges

At a local community centre, workers stress that support does not recognise addresses. “Where you live doesn’t necessarily indicate your personal struggles,” said chief executive Tracey Good.

Regardless of being placed in the most deprived 10% for multiple deprivation indicators, the estate boasts a strong sense and feeling of community among its inhabitants. By contrast, Scartho is classified among the least deprived 10% overall.

A Similar Story: An Estate in Kent

This pattern is mirrored across the country. The Stanhope area in Ashford, Kent, a 1960s housing development, is in the most disadvantaged tenth of areas in the country. It is immediately adjacent by spacious detached homes built in the 2000s that are in the top 10% for employment and quality of surroundings.

“They might have bigger houses, but here there’s a stronger community,” commented Phil Hockley, aged 63. “You’ll probably find a lot of people in the new builds don’t even speak to each other.”

The economic divide is clear: an typical family home costs about £275,000 on the Stanhope estate, while on the other side equivalent homes go for about £410,000.

Locals speak of a tangible sense of being overlooked. “Our neighbourhood is neglected,” stated holistic health worker Susan Riley-Nevers. “In this area our facilities have gradually disappeared, and most of the community problems here are to do with poverty.”

The rise in these ‘deprivation divides’ presents a portrait of an increasingly segregated England, where prosperity and deprivation are often awkwardly close neighbours.