A Growing ‘Posh-Poor Divide’: How Affluence and Deprivation Now Sit Cheek by Jowl in Across England.

Within a postwar estate known as ‘The Nunny’, residents live in homes just several yards from their wealthier neighbours in nearby Scartho. One 1.8-metre-high barricade literally divides the two communities in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, sealing off paths and streets that once linked them.

“This is the posh-poor divide,” said a resident, aged 37. “It has been there for as long as I’ve known. I doubt they’ll bring it down because I don’t think they’ll want to mix with us.”

An Increasingly Common Pattern Across the Country

Analysis of official statistics reveals how deep inequality can run, sometimes over nothing more than a short distance of tarmac, a line of hedges or a wall. Years of austerity and lack of funding have led to a situation where a majority of councils now contain a locality ranking as one of the most deprived in the nation.

The spread of deprivation has led to a sharp rise in the number of locations where deprived and affluent people find themselves as immediate neighbours. In 2019, just 65 of the most deprived neighbourhoods bordered one of the wealthiest. That figure rose to 119 in the most recent data.

A Barrier Which Divides More Than Land

In Grimsby, the divide is the biggest in the country and painfully apparent. The barrier is much more than a metaphorical divide; it causes tangible problems for everyday life.

• The school commute that should take a quarter of an hour become an sixty-minute detour.
• Reaching key services like supermarkets, educational facilities and care homes is made more difficult.
• The area can attract vandalism and loitering, with reports of rubbish being dumped over the wall and other problems.

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

Community Spirit Amidst Hardship

At a local community centre, workers stress that support transcends postcodes. “Your postcode is not a reliable indicator of your personal struggles,” explained director Tracey Good.

Regardless of being placed in the lowest 10% for multiple deprivation indicators, the estate boasts a strong sense and sense of community among its inhabitants. Meanwhile, the neighbouring area is classified among the least deprived 10% overall.

Echoes Elsewhere: An Estate in Kent

This phenomenon is mirrored nationally. The Stanhope estate in Kent, a 1960s housing development, is in the 10% most deprived of neighbourhoods in England. It is closely bordered by large houses built in the 2000s that sit in the wealthiest tenth for employment and living environment.

“They might have larger properties, but here there’s a stronger community,” said a long-term resident, aged 63. “It’s likely many people in the new builds never even talk to each other.”

The financial divide is clear: an typical three-bedroom house costs about £275,000 on the estate, while across the divide equivalent homes fetch about £410,000.

Locals describe a palpable sense of being overlooked. “This part of the community is neglected,” stated resident Susan Riley-Nevers. “Over here our amenities have slowly been taken away, and most of the issues we face here are to do with financial hardship.”

The rise in these ‘inequality borders’ paints a portrait of an increasingly divided society, where prosperity and deprivation are often uncomfortably in close proximity.