The Rising ‘Wealth-Poverty Gap’: How Affluence and Hardship Now Sit Side by Side in England.

Within Nunsthorpe, inhabitants live in homes only a few metres from their wealthier counterparts in nearby Scartho village. One six-foot-tall wall physically divides the two areas in the town of Grimsby, sealing off paths and streets that once linked them.

“It’s the divide between rich and poor,” said Serenity Colley, 37. “It has been there since I’ve known. I don’t think they’ll bring it down because I don’t think they’ll want to mix with us.”

A Stark National Picture

Data from government figures reveals the extent of inequality often exists, sometimes over nothing more than a few metres of asphalt, a line of hedges or a barrier. Decades of austerity and lack of funding mean almost two-thirds of councils now have a locality classified as one of the poorest in the country.

The spread of deprivation has led to a significant increase in the quantity of places where deprived and well-off people end up living side by side. Just a few years ago, only 65 of the most deprived areas adjoined one of the wealthiest. This number rose to 119 in the latest data.

A Barrier Which Does More Than Separate Land

In Grimsby, the divide is the biggest in the country and painfully obvious. The wall transcends being just a symbolic divide; it causes tangible problems for daily routines.

• School runs that should take a quarter of an hour become an sixty-minute detour.
• Reaching key services like grocery stores, educational facilities and employment centres is hindered.
• The area can attract vandalism and loitering, with instances of rubbish being dumped over the wall and other issues.

“People strive to maintain a nice house and nice garden, and then you live opposite that,” noted one local, gesturing towards the rusted barricade.

Community Spirit Against a Backdrop of Challenges

At a local community centre, workers stress that need does not recognise addresses. “Your postcode is not a reliable indicator of your personal struggles,” said chief executive Tracey Good.

Despite ranking in the most deprived 10% for income, employment, education, health and crime, Nunsthorpe boasts a strong sense and feeling of community among its residents. Meanwhile, the neighbouring area is classified among the least deprived 10% nationally.

Echoes Elsewhere: An Estate in Kent

This phenomenon is mirrored across the country. The Stanhope estate in Ashford, Kent, a 1960s overspill estate, 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 sit in the top 10% for job prospects and quality of surroundings.

“They may possess bigger houses, but here there’s more community,” commented a long-term resident, aged 63. “It’s likely a lot of people in the new builds never even talk to each other.”

The economic divide is clear: an typical family home costs about £275,000 on the estate, while across the divide comparable properties go for about £410,000.

Residents speak of a tangible feeling of being overlooked. “This part of the community gets ignored,” said holistic health worker Susan Riley-Nevers. “Over here our facilities have gradually disappeared, and the majority of the issues we face here are to do with financial hardship.”

The rise in these ‘deprivation divides’ presents a picture of an ever more divided England, where prosperity and deprivation are often awkwardly close neighbours.