The Growing ‘Posh-Poor Divide’: How Affluence and Hardship Now Sit Side by Side in Across England.
Within a postwar estate known as ‘The Nunny’, residents live in properties only several yards from their more affluent counterparts in the adjacent Scartho village. One six-foot-tall wall physically separates the two communities in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, blocking off paths and streets that once linked them.
“It’s the divide between rich and poor,” remarked a resident, aged 37. “It’s been like this for as long as I’ve known. I doubt they’ll bring it down because I suspect they’ll want to associate with us.”
An Increasingly Common Pattern Across the Country
Analysis of official statistics reveals the extent of disparity often exists, sometimes across nothing more than a short distance of tarmac, a hedge row or a barrier. Decades of budget cuts and underinvestment have led to a situation where a majority of councils now contain a neighbourhood ranking as one of the poorest in the nation.
The geographical widening of deprivation has coincided with a significant increase in the quantity of places where deprived and affluent people find themselves as immediate neighbours. In 2019, only 65 of the most deprived neighbourhoods bordered one of the wealthiest. This number rose to 119 in the most recent data.
A Barrier Which Divides More Than Space
At this Lincolnshire site, the divide is the biggest in the UK and starkly obvious. The wall is much more than a symbolic divide; it creates very real difficulties for everyday life.
- School runs that ought to take 15-20 minutes become an sixty-minute journey.
- Reaching key services like grocery stores, educational facilities and care homes is made more difficult.
- The area can attract antisocial behaviour, 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, gesturing towards the rusted metal wall.
Local Bonds Amidst Challenges
Within Centre4, workers emphasise that support does not recognise postcodes. “Where you live doesn’t necessarily indicate your personal struggles,” explained chief executive Tracey Good.
Despite 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 phenomenon is repeated nationally. The Stanhope estate in Ashford, Kent, a mid-century housing development, is in the most disadvantaged tenth of areas in England. It is closely bordered by spacious houses built in the early 2000s that are in the wealthiest tenth for employment and quality of surroundings.
“They may possess larger properties, but here there’s more community,” said Phil Hockley, 63. “You’ll probably find many people over there don’t even speak to each other.”
The financial gap is evident: an typical family home costs about £275,000 on the estate, while across the divide equivalent properties go for about £410,000.
Residents describe a palpable sense of neglect. “Our neighbourhood is neglected,” said resident Susan Riley-Nevers. “Over here our facilities have slowly been taken away, and most of the community problems here are related to financial hardship.”
The rise in these ‘inequality borders’ paints a picture of an increasingly segregated society, where wealth and deprivation are frequently uncomfortably close neighbours.