A Rising ‘Wealth-Poverty Gap’: The Way Prosperity and Hardship Now Sit Side by Side in England.

In Nunsthorpe, residents occupy properties only several yards from their more affluent neighbours in the adjacent Scartho. A six-foot-tall wall literally divides the two areas in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, sealing off paths and streets that once connected them.

“It’s the divide between rich and poor,” said Serenity Colley, 37. “It has been there 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.”

An Increasingly Common National Picture

Data from government statistics shows the extent of inequality often exists, at times over nothing more than a few metres of tarmac, a line of hedges or a wall. Years of austerity and underinvestment mean almost two-thirds of local authorities now have a neighbourhood classified as one of the most deprived in the country.

This spread of deprivation has led to a sharp increase in the quantity of locations where deprived and well-off people find themselves as immediate neighbours. In 2019, only 65 of the poorest areas adjoined one of the wealthiest. This number rose to 119 in the most recent data.

A Barrier Which Does More Than Separate Space

In Grimsby, the divide is the most pronounced in the UK and painfully apparent. The barrier is much more than a symbolic division; it causes very real problems for everyday life.

• The school commute that ought to take a quarter of an hour become an sixty-minute journey.
• Reaching key amenities like grocery stores, schools and care homes is made more difficult.
• The area can attract antisocial behaviour, with reports of litter being thrown over the wall and related issues.

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

Local Bonds Against a Backdrop of Challenges

Within Centre4, workers stress that support does not recognise addresses. “Your postcode is not a reliable indicator of your level of challenge,” said chief executive a community leader.

Despite ranking in the most deprived 10% for multiple deprivation indicators, the estate retains a fierce loyalty and feeling of togetherness among its inhabitants. Meanwhile, Scartho ranks among the most prosperous 10% nationally.

Echoes Elsewhere: Stanhope in Ashford

This pattern is mirrored across the country. The Stanhope estate in Ashford, Kent, a 1960s overspill estate, is in the 10% most deprived of neighbourhoods in the country. It is immediately adjacent by spacious houses built in the early 2000s that sit in the wealthiest tenth for job prospects and quality of surroundings.

“They may possess larger properties, but here there’s a stronger community,” said a long-term resident, aged 63. “It’s likely a lot of people over there never even talk to each other.”

The economic gap is evident: an average family home sells for about £275,000 on the estate, while across the divide equivalent properties fetch about £410,000.

Residents speak of a palpable feeling of being overlooked. “This part of the community is neglected,” said resident Susan Riley-Nevers. “Over here our amenities have gradually disappeared, and the majority of the issues we face here are related to poverty.”

The increase in these ‘deprivation divides’ paints a portrait of an increasingly segregated England, where wealth and need are often uncomfortably in close proximity.