A Growing ‘Posh-Poor Divide’: The Way Prosperity and Hardship Are Found Side by Side in England.

In a postwar estate known as ‘The Nunny’, inhabitants occupy homes only several yards from their more affluent neighbours in the adjacent Scartho village. A six-foot-tall barricade physically divides the two communities in the town of Grimsby, blocking off roads and walkways that once linked them.

“It’s the divide between rich and poor,” said Serenity Colley, aged 37. “It’s been like this since I’ve known. I doubt they’ll take it down because I suspect they’ll want to mix with us.”

A Stark National Picture

Analysis of government figures reveals the extent of disparity often exists, at times across nothing more than a few metres of asphalt, a hedge row or a barrier. Decades of austerity and lack of funding have led to a situation where almost two-thirds of local authorities now have a locality classified as one of the poorest in the nation.

This spread of deprivation has coincided with a significant rise in the quantity of locations where disadvantaged and affluent residents end up living side by side. In 2019, only 65 of the poorest areas bordered one of the least deprived. That figure increased to 119 in the most recent data.

A Wall That Does More Than Separate Land

In Grimsby, the divide is the biggest in the country and painfully apparent. The barrier is much more than a symbolic division; it causes very real problems for daily routines.

• The school commute that should take 15-20 minutes become an sixty-minute journey.
• Access to important amenities like supermarkets, schools and employment centres is made more difficult.
• The area can attract antisocial behaviour, with instances of rubbish being dumped over the wall and other issues.

“You try to maintain a well-kept home and garden, and then you live opposite that,” noted one local, motioning at the corroded barricade.

Community Spirit Amidst Challenges

Within a local community centre, workers emphasise that support does not recognise 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 income, employment, education, health and crime, Nunsthorpe retains a strong sense and sense of community among its inhabitants. By contrast, the neighbouring area is classified among the least deprived 10% overall.

Echoes Elsewhere: An Estate in Kent

This phenomenon is repeated nationally. The Stanhope estate in Kent, a mid-century housing development, is in the 10% most deprived of areas in the country. It is closely bordered by spacious houses built in the early 2000s that sit in the wealthiest tenth for employment and quality of surroundings.

“They might have bigger houses, but here there’s more community,” commented a long-term resident, 63. “It’s likely many people over there don’t even speak to each other.”

The financial divide is clear: an typical three-bedroom house sells for about £275,000 on the Stanhope estate, while on the other side equivalent properties fetch about £410,000.

Residents speak of a tangible sense of being overlooked. “This part of the community gets ignored,” said resident Susan. “Over here our amenities have gradually disappeared, and the majority of the issues we face here are to do with poverty.”

The rise in these ‘deprivation divides’ presents a picture of an increasingly segregated England, where wealth and deprivation are frequently uncomfortably close neighbours.