A Growing ‘Wealth-Poverty Gap’: The Way Prosperity and Deprivation Are Found Cheek by Jowl in Across England.
Within a postwar estate known as ‘The Nunny’, inhabitants live in properties only several yards from their more affluent counterparts in nearby Scartho village. A six-foot-tall barricade physically divides the two communities in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, blocking off paths and streets that once linked them.
“This is the posh-poor divide,” remarked a resident, 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 National Picture
Data from official figures reveals the extent of disparity can run, sometimes across nothing more than a few metres of asphalt, a line of hedges or a wall. Decades of budget cuts and underinvestment have led to a situation where almost two-thirds of local authorities now have a neighbourhood ranking as one of the poorest in the country.
This geographical widening of deprivation has coincided with a sharp increase in the quantity of places where disadvantaged and well-off people end up living side by side. In 2019, just 65 of the poorest neighbourhoods bordered one of the least deprived. That figure increased to 119 in the most recent data.
A Barrier Which Does More Than Separate Space
At this Lincolnshire site, the divide is the biggest in the country and starkly apparent. The barrier is much more than a metaphorical divide; it causes tangible problems for everyday life.
- School runs that ought to take a quarter of an hour turn into an hour-long journey.
- Access to key amenities like grocery stores, educational facilities and care homes is hindered.
- The area can attract antisocial behaviour, with reports of rubbish being thrown over the wall and other issues.
“People strive to have a well-kept home and garden, and then you live opposite that,” noted one local, motioning at the rusted barricade.
Community Spirit Against a Backdrop of Challenges
Within a local community centre, staff emphasise that need does not recognise addresses. “Your postcode doesn’t necessarily indicate your personal struggles,” explained director Tracey Good.
Despite ranking in the most deprived 10% for multiple deprivation indicators, the estate retains a fierce loyalty and feeling of togetherness among its inhabitants. By contrast, Scartho ranks among the least deprived 10% nationally.
Echoes Elsewhere: Stanhope in Ashford
This pattern is repeated nationally. The Stanhope area in Ashford, Kent, a 1960s overspill estate, is in the 10% most deprived of neighbourhoods in the country. It is immediately adjacent by large houses built in the 2000s that are in the wealthiest tenth 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 economic divide is clear: an typical three-bedroom house sells for about £275,000 on the estate, while across the divide equivalent homes go for about £410,000.
Locals speak of a tangible feeling of neglect. “Our neighbourhood gets ignored,” said resident Susan Riley-Nevers. “Over here our facilities have slowly been taken away, and most of the community problems here are to do with poverty.”
The increase in these ‘inequality borders’ presents a picture of an increasingly segregated society, where wealth and need are often uncomfortably in close proximity.
