A Rising ‘Wealth-Poverty Gap’: The Way Affluence and Hardship Now Sit Cheek by Jowl in England.

Within a postwar estate known as ‘The Nunny’, residents live in homes just a few metres from their wealthier counterparts in nearby Scartho. A six-foot-tall wall literally divides the two areas in the town of Grimsby, sealing off paths and streets that once linked them.

“It’s the posh-poor divide,” remarked a resident, 37. “It has been there since I’ve known. I doubt they’ll bring it down because I suspect they’ll want to mix with us.”

An Increasingly Common National Picture

Analysis of official figures shows the extent of disparity can run, at times across little more than a few metres of tarmac, a line of hedges or a wall. Decades of budget cuts and underinvestment have led to a situation where a majority of councils now have a locality ranking as one of the poorest in the nation.

The geographical widening of deprivation has led to a sharp rise in the quantity of places where deprived and well-off people end up living side by side. In 2019, only 65 of the most deprived areas adjoined one of the wealthiest. This number rose 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 UK and starkly apparent. The wall transcends being just a metaphorical divide; it causes tangible problems for everyday life.

• School runs that ought to take a quarter of an hour become an sixty-minute detour.
• Access to important services like grocery stores, schools and employment centres is hindered.
• The area often sees antisocial behaviour, with instances of rubbish being thrown over the wall and other problems.

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

Local Bonds Amidst Challenges

At a local community centre, workers emphasise that support transcends addresses. “Where you live doesn’t necessarily indicate your level of challenge,” said director Tracey Good.

Despite being placed in the most deprived 10% for income, employment, education, health and crime, the estate retains a strong sense and feeling of community among its inhabitants. By contrast, Scartho is classified among the least deprived 10% overall.

A Similar Story: Stanhope in Ashford

This pattern is repeated nationally. The Stanhope estate in Kent, a mid-century overspill estate, is in the most disadvantaged tenth of areas in England. It is immediately adjacent by large houses built in the 2000s that are in the wealthiest tenth for job prospects and quality of surroundings.

“They may possess larger properties, but here there’s a stronger community,” said a long-term resident, 63. “It’s likely many people in the new builds never even talk to each other.”

The economic divide is clear: an average family home costs about £275,000 on the Stanhope estate, while across the divide comparable homes fetch about £410,000.

Residents speak of a palpable feeling of being overlooked. “This part of the community gets ignored,” said resident Susan. “In this area our facilities have gradually disappeared, and the majority of the issues we face here are to do with poverty.”

The increase in these ‘inequality borders’ paints a portrait of an increasingly divided England, where prosperity and deprivation are frequently awkwardly close neighbours.