The Rising ‘Wealth-Poverty Gap’: How Prosperity and Hardship Now Sit Cheek by Jowl in England.

Within Nunsthorpe, residents live in properties just a few metres from their more affluent neighbours in the adjacent Scartho. One six-foot-tall barricade physically divides the two areas in the town of Grimsby, blocking off paths and streets that once connected them.

“This is the divide between rich and poor,” said Serenity Colley, 37. “It’s been like this since I’ve known. I doubt they’ll take it down because I suspect they’ll want to associate with us.”

A Stark Pattern Across the Country

Analysis of official figures shows how deep inequality can run, at times across nothing more than a short distance of tarmac, a hedge row or a barrier. Years of austerity 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 country.

The geographical widening of poverty has coincided with a significant rise in the quantity of locations where deprived and well-off people find themselves living side by side. In 2019, just 65 of the poorest neighbourhoods bordered one of the least deprived. That figure increased to 119 in the most recent data.

A Wall That Does More Than Separate Land

In Grimsby, the gap is the most pronounced in the country and starkly obvious. The barrier is much more than a metaphorical divide; it causes very real problems for everyday life.

• The school commute that should take a quarter of an hour become an sixty-minute journey.
• Reaching important services like grocery stores, schools and employment centres is made more difficult.
• The site can attract vandalism and loitering, with instances of litter being dumped over the wall and other issues.

“You try to maintain a nice house and nice garden, and then you live opposite that,” said one local, motioning at the corroded barricade.

Local Bonds Against a Backdrop of Challenges

At a local community centre, workers emphasise that need does not recognise addresses. “Your postcode doesn’t necessarily indicate your personal struggles,” explained director a community leader.

Despite ranking in the lowest 10% for multiple deprivation indicators, the estate retains a strong sense and sense of community among its inhabitants. By contrast, Scartho is classified among the least deprived 10% nationally.

A Similar Story: Stanhope in Ashford

This phenomenon is repeated across the country. The Stanhope estate in Ashford, Kent, a mid-century overspill estate, is in the 10% most deprived of areas in the country. It is immediately adjacent by spacious houses built in the early 2000s that sit in the wealthiest tenth for employment and quality of surroundings.

“They may possess larger properties, but here there’s more community,” commented a long-term resident, aged 63. “It’s likely many people in the new builds don’t even speak to each other.”

The economic gap is clear: an typical family home costs about £275,000 on the Stanhope estate, while on the other side equivalent properties fetch about £410,000.

Locals speak of a palpable feeling of being overlooked. “Our neighbourhood gets ignored,” said resident Susan Riley-Nevers. “In this area our amenities have gradually disappeared, and the majority of the issues we face here are to do with financial hardship.”

The rise in these ‘deprivation divides’ paints a picture of an increasingly divided England, where prosperity and deprivation are frequently awkwardly close neighbours.