A Growing ‘Wealth-Poverty Gap’: The Way Affluence and Deprivation Are Found Side by Side in England.

Within Nunsthorpe, residents live in properties only several yards from their more affluent counterparts in nearby Scartho. One six-foot-tall barricade physically separates the two communities in the town of Grimsby, sealing off roads and walkways that once connected them.

“It’s the divide between rich and poor,” remarked Serenity Colley, 37. “It’s been like this since I’ve known. I doubt they’ll take it down because I don’t think they’ll want to mix with us.”

An Increasingly Common National Picture

Analysis of government statistics shows the extent of disparity can run, at times across little more than a few metres of tarmac, a hedge row or a wall. Years of budget cuts and underinvestment mean a majority of councils now contain a locality classified as one of the poorest in the nation.

This spread of poverty has coincided with a significant increase in the number of locations where deprived and affluent residents end up living side by side. In 2019, just 65 of the most deprived areas bordered one of the least deprived. This number increased to 119 in the most recent data.

A Wall That Divides More Than Land

In Grimsby, the divide is the biggest in the country and starkly apparent. The wall is much more than a symbolic divide; it causes very real problems for everyday life.

• School runs that ought to take a quarter of an hour become an hour-long detour.
• Access to key services like grocery stores, educational facilities and employment centres is hindered.
• The area can attract vandalism and loitering, with reports of litter being dumped over the wall and related problems.

“You try to maintain a well-kept home and garden, and then you live opposite that,” said one local, gesturing towards the corroded metal wall.

Community Spirit Against a Backdrop of Challenges

At Centre4, workers stress that need does not recognise postcodes. “Your postcode is not a reliable indicator of your personal struggles,” said chief executive a community leader.

Despite being placed in the lowest 10% for multiple deprivation indicators, the estate retains a strong sense and feeling of togetherness among its inhabitants. By contrast, the neighbouring area is classified among the least deprived 10% overall.

A Similar Story: Stanhope in Ashford

This phenomenon is mirrored nationally. The Stanhope area in Ashford, Kent, a mid-century housing development, is in the most disadvantaged tenth of areas in the country. It is immediately adjacent by large detached homes built in the early 2000s that are in the top 10% for job prospects and quality of surroundings.

“They might have bigger houses, but here there’s more community,” said a long-term resident, aged 63. “It’s likely many people over there never even talk to each other.”

The economic divide is clear: an average three-bedroom house sells for about £275,000 on the Stanhope estate, while across the divide comparable homes fetch about £410,000.

Locals speak of a tangible sense of being overlooked. “Our neighbourhood is neglected,” said holistic health worker Susan Riley-Nevers. “Over here our facilities have slowly been taken away, and the majority of the community problems here are to do with poverty.”

The increase in these ‘deprivation divides’ presents a picture of an increasingly segregated society, where wealth and deprivation are often awkwardly close neighbours.