A Growing ‘Wealth-Poverty Gap’: How Affluence and Hardship Now Sit Cheek by Jowl in Across England.

In Nunsthorpe, inhabitants occupy homes only a few metres from their wealthier neighbours in the adjacent Scartho. A six-foot-tall wall literally divides the two communities in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, sealing off paths and streets that once linked them.

“This is the posh-poor divide,” said Serenity Colley, 37. “It has been there for as long as I’ve known. I don’t think they’ll bring it down because I suspect they’ll want to mix with us.”

An Increasingly Common Pattern Across the Country

Data from official figures reveals the extent of disparity can run, at times over nothing more than a short distance of asphalt, a hedge row or a barrier. Years of budget cuts and lack of funding have led to a situation where a majority of councils now contain a locality classified as one of the most deprived in the nation.

This spread of poverty has led to a significant increase in the quantity of places where disadvantaged and affluent people end up living side by side. In 2019, just 65 of the most deprived neighbourhoods adjoined one of the least deprived. This number rose to 119 in the latest data.

A Barrier Which Does More Than Separate Land

At this Lincolnshire site, the divide is the most pronounced in the country and painfully obvious. The barrier is much more than a symbolic division; it creates very real problems for everyday life.

• School runs that ought to take a quarter of an hour turn into an hour-long journey.
• Access to important amenities like grocery stores, educational facilities and care homes is made more difficult.
• The site can attract vandalism and loitering, with instances of rubbish being dumped over the wall and related problems.

“People strive to maintain a well-kept home and garden, and then you reside facing that,” noted one local, motioning at the rusted metal wall.

Community Spirit Against a Backdrop of Hardship

Within Centre4, workers stress that support transcends addresses. “Where you live doesn’t necessarily indicate your personal struggles,” said chief executive Tracey Good.

Regardless of being placed in the most deprived 10% for multiple deprivation indicators, Nunsthorpe retains a fierce loyalty and feeling of community among its residents. Meanwhile, the neighbouring area is classified among the most prosperous 10% nationally.

Echoes Elsewhere: An Estate in Kent

This pattern is repeated nationally. The Stanhope area in Kent, a 1960s housing development, is in the most disadvantaged tenth of areas in the country. It is closely bordered by spacious houses built in the 2000s that are in the top 10% for employment and living environment.

“They might have larger properties, but here there’s a stronger community,” said a long-term resident, 63. “You’ll probably find many people over there don’t even speak to each other.”

The financial divide is clear: an average family home sells for about £275,000 on the estate, while across the divide equivalent homes fetch about £410,000.

Locals describe a tangible sense of being overlooked. “This part of the community gets ignored,” said holistic health worker Susan Riley-Nevers. “In this area our amenities have slowly been taken away, and most of the issues we face here are to do with financial hardship.”

The increase in these ‘inequality borders’ paints a picture of an ever more segregated England, where prosperity and need are frequently uncomfortably close neighbours.