The Growing ‘Wealth-Poverty Gap’: The Way Affluence and Hardship Are Found Cheek by Jowl in Across England.
In Nunsthorpe, inhabitants live in homes just a few metres from their wealthier neighbours in nearby Scartho village. One six-foot-tall wall literally divides the two communities in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, blocking off roads and walkways that once connected them.
“It’s the divide between rich and poor,” said Serenity Colley, aged 37. “It’s been like this for as long as I’ve known. I don’t think they’ll take it down because I don’t think they’ll want to associate with us.”
A Stark Pattern Across the Country
Data from government statistics reveals the extent of inequality can run, sometimes across nothing more than a short distance of asphalt, a line of hedges or a barrier. Decades of budget cuts and underinvestment mean a majority of local authorities now have a locality classified as one of the poorest in the country.
The geographical widening of poverty has coincided with a sharp rise in the number of locations where deprived and affluent residents end up living side by side. Just a few years ago, just 65 of the poorest neighbourhoods bordered one of the wealthiest. That figure increased to 119 in the most recent data.
A Barrier Which Divides More Than Land
At this Lincolnshire site, the divide is the most pronounced in the UK and painfully apparent. The barrier transcends being just a symbolic division; it causes tangible problems for everyday life.
- School runs that ought to take 15-20 minutes turn into an sixty-minute journey.
- Reaching important services like supermarkets, educational facilities and care homes is hindered.
- The site often sees antisocial behaviour, with reports of litter being thrown over the wall and related problems.
“You try to have a well-kept home and garden, and then you live opposite that,” said one local, gesturing towards the corroded barricade.
Local Bonds Against a Backdrop of Hardship
Within Centre4, workers stress that need transcends postcodes. “Your postcode doesn’t necessarily indicate your level of challenge,” explained director Tracey Good.
Regardless of ranking in the most deprived 10% for multiple deprivation indicators, the estate retains a fierce loyalty and sense of togetherness among its inhabitants. By contrast, Scartho is classified among the most prosperous 10% nationally.
Echoes Elsewhere: Stanhope in Ashford
This phenomenon is mirrored across the country. The Stanhope area in Ashford, Kent, a mid-century overspill estate, is in the most disadvantaged tenth of areas in the country. It is immediately adjacent by spacious detached homes built in the 2000s that sit in the wealthiest tenth for employment and quality of surroundings.
“They may possess larger properties, but here there’s more community,” said Phil Hockley, aged 63. “It’s likely many people over there don’t even speak to each other.”
The economic divide is clear: an average three-bedroom house sells for about £275,000 on the estate, while on the other side equivalent homes fetch about £410,000.
Locals describe a palpable sense of neglect. “This part of the community is neglected,” said resident Susan Riley-Nevers. “Over here our amenities have slowly been taken away, and most of the community problems here are to do with poverty.”
The increase in these ‘deprivation divides’ paints a picture of an increasingly segregated England, where prosperity and need are often awkwardly in close proximity.
