🔗 Share this article The Rising ‘Posh-Poor Divide’: How Affluence and Deprivation Are Found Cheek by Jowl in England. Within Nunsthorpe, inhabitants live in properties only several yards from their more affluent neighbours in the adjacent Scartho village. A six-foot-tall wall physically divides the two communities in the town of Grimsby, blocking off paths and streets that previously linked them. “It’s the divide between rich and poor,” said Serenity Colley, aged 37. “It has been there since I’ve known. I doubt they’ll bring it down because I suspect they’ll want to associate with us.” A Stark National Picture Analysis of official statistics reveals how deep disparity can run, at times across little more than a few metres of tarmac, a hedge row or a wall. Decades of budget cuts and lack of funding have led to a situation where a majority of councils now have a locality ranking as one of the poorest in the country. This geographical widening of deprivation has led to a sharp increase in the quantity of locations where deprived and well-off people find themselves as immediate neighbours. Just a few years ago, just 65 of the poorest areas bordered one of the wealthiest. This number increased to 119 in the most recent data. A Wall That Does More Than Separate Land At this Lincolnshire site, the divide is the biggest in the country and painfully obvious. The wall is much more than a symbolic divide; it causes very real problems for daily routines. The school commute that ought to take 15-20 minutes turn into an hour-long journey. Reaching important amenities like grocery stores, schools and employment centres is made more difficult. The site can attract vandalism and loitering, with instances of rubbish being dumped over the wall and other issues. “You try to have a nice house and nice garden, and then you reside facing that,” noted one resident, motioning at the corroded barricade. Local Bonds Against a Backdrop of Hardship At Centre4, staff emphasise that need transcends postcodes. “Where you live doesn’t necessarily indicate your level of challenge,” explained director Tracey Good. Despite ranking in the most deprived 10% for income, employment, education, health and crime, Nunsthorpe boasts a fierce loyalty and feeling of togetherness among its residents. Meanwhile, Scartho is classified among the least deprived 10% overall. Echoes Elsewhere: An Estate in Kent This pattern is mirrored across the country. The Stanhope area in Kent, a 1960s housing development, is in the most disadvantaged tenth of neighbourhoods in the country. It is closely bordered by spacious houses built in the early 2000s that sit in the wealthiest tenth for employment and living environment. “They may possess bigger houses, but here there’s more community,” said Phil Hockley, 63. “It’s likely a lot of people in the new builds don’t even speak to each other.” The economic gap is evident: an typical three-bedroom house sells for about £275,000 on the estate, while across the divide comparable homes go for about £410,000. Residents speak of a palpable feeling of neglect. “Our neighbourhood is neglected,” stated resident Susan. “Over here our amenities have slowly been taken away, and the majority of the community problems here are to do with poverty.” The increase in these ‘deprivation divides’ paints a portrait of an increasingly segregated society, where wealth and deprivation are frequently uncomfortably close neighbours.
Within Nunsthorpe, inhabitants live in properties only several yards from their more affluent neighbours in the adjacent Scartho village. A six-foot-tall wall physically divides the two communities in the town of Grimsby, blocking off paths and streets that previously linked them. “It’s the divide between rich and poor,” said Serenity Colley, aged 37. “It has been there since I’ve known. I doubt they’ll bring it down because I suspect they’ll want to associate with us.” A Stark National Picture Analysis of official statistics reveals how deep disparity can run, at times across little more than a few metres of tarmac, a hedge row or a wall. Decades of budget cuts and lack of funding have led to a situation where a majority of councils now have a locality ranking as one of the poorest in the country. This geographical widening of deprivation has led to a sharp increase in the quantity of locations where deprived and well-off people find themselves as immediate neighbours. Just a few years ago, just 65 of the poorest areas bordered one of the wealthiest. This number increased to 119 in the most recent data. A Wall That Does More Than Separate Land At this Lincolnshire site, the divide is the biggest in the country and painfully obvious. The wall is much more than a symbolic divide; it causes very real problems for daily routines. The school commute that ought to take 15-20 minutes turn into an hour-long journey. Reaching important amenities like grocery stores, schools and employment centres is made more difficult. The site can attract vandalism and loitering, with instances of rubbish being dumped over the wall and other issues. “You try to have a nice house and nice garden, and then you reside facing that,” noted one resident, motioning at the corroded barricade. Local Bonds Against a Backdrop of Hardship At Centre4, staff emphasise that need transcends postcodes. “Where you live doesn’t necessarily indicate your level of challenge,” explained director Tracey Good. Despite ranking in the most deprived 10% for income, employment, education, health and crime, Nunsthorpe boasts a fierce loyalty and feeling of togetherness among its residents. Meanwhile, Scartho is classified among the least deprived 10% overall. Echoes Elsewhere: An Estate in Kent This pattern is mirrored across the country. The Stanhope area in Kent, a 1960s housing development, is in the most disadvantaged tenth of neighbourhoods in the country. It is closely bordered by spacious houses built in the early 2000s that sit in the wealthiest tenth for employment and living environment. “They may possess bigger houses, but here there’s more community,” said Phil Hockley, 63. “It’s likely a lot of people in the new builds don’t even speak to each other.” The economic gap is evident: an typical three-bedroom house sells for about £275,000 on the estate, while across the divide comparable homes go for about £410,000. Residents speak of a palpable feeling of neglect. “Our neighbourhood is neglected,” stated resident Susan. “Over here our amenities have slowly been taken away, and the majority of the community problems here are to do with poverty.” The increase in these ‘deprivation divides’ paints a portrait of an increasingly segregated society, where wealth and deprivation are frequently uncomfortably close neighbours.