🔗 Share this article A Rising ‘Wealth-Poverty Gap’: The Way Prosperity and Hardship Are Found Side by Side in England. Within Nunsthorpe, residents live in properties only several yards from their wealthier neighbours in the adjacent Scartho village. A six-foot-tall barricade physically separates the two communities in the town of Grimsby, sealing off roads and walkways that previously connected them. “This is the divide between rich and poor,” said Serenity Colley, aged 37. “It’s been like this since I’ve known. I doubt they’ll take it down because I suspect they’ll want to mix with us.” A Stark Pattern Across the Country Analysis of government figures reveals the extent of 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 have a neighbourhood classified as one of the most deprived in the country. This spread of deprivation has coincided with a sharp rise in the number of locations where deprived and well-off people end up as immediate neighbours. In 2019, only 65 of the most deprived areas bordered one of the wealthiest. This number rose to 119 in the most recent data. A Wall That Divides More Than Space At this Lincolnshire site, the divide is the most pronounced in the country and starkly obvious. The barrier transcends being just a symbolic division; it causes very real difficulties for daily routines. The school commute that should take 15-20 minutes become an hour-long journey. Reaching key services like supermarkets, educational facilities and care homes is made more difficult. The area can attract antisocial behaviour, with reports of rubbish being dumped over the wall and related issues. “You try to maintain a well-kept home and garden, and then you live opposite that,” said one local, gesturing towards the rusted metal wall. Community Spirit Against a Backdrop of Challenges At a local community centre, workers stress that need does not recognise postcodes. “Your postcode is not a reliable indicator of your level of challenge,” explained chief executive Tracey Good. Regardless of being placed in the lowest 10% for income, employment, education, health and crime, the estate retains a fierce loyalty and sense of togetherness among its residents. By contrast, Scartho is classified among the least deprived 10% nationally. A Similar Story: Stanhope in Ashford This phenomenon is mirrored across the country. The Stanhope area in Ashford, Kent, a 1960s overspill estate, is in the 10% most deprived of neighbourhoods in the country. It is closely bordered by spacious detached homes built in the 2000s that are in the wealthiest tenth for job prospects and quality of surroundings. “They might have larger properties, but here there’s a stronger community,” said Phil Hockley, 63. “It’s likely a lot of people in the new builds don’t even speak to each other.” The economic gap is evident: an average three-bedroom house sells for about £275,000 on the estate, while across the divide equivalent properties fetch about £410,000. Residents describe a palpable sense of neglect. “Our neighbourhood is neglected,” stated holistic health worker Susan Riley-Nevers. “In this area our facilities have slowly been taken away, and most of the issues we face here are related to financial hardship.” The rise in these ‘deprivation divides’ paints a portrait of an increasingly divided society, where wealth and deprivation are frequently awkwardly close neighbours.
Within Nunsthorpe, residents live in properties only several yards from their wealthier neighbours in the adjacent Scartho village. A six-foot-tall barricade physically separates the two communities in the town of Grimsby, sealing off roads and walkways that previously connected them. “This is the divide between rich and poor,” said Serenity Colley, aged 37. “It’s been like this since I’ve known. I doubt they’ll take it down because I suspect they’ll want to mix with us.” A Stark Pattern Across the Country Analysis of government figures reveals the extent of 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 have a neighbourhood classified as one of the most deprived in the country. This spread of deprivation has coincided with a sharp rise in the number of locations where deprived and well-off people end up as immediate neighbours. In 2019, only 65 of the most deprived areas bordered one of the wealthiest. This number rose to 119 in the most recent data. A Wall That Divides More Than Space At this Lincolnshire site, the divide is the most pronounced in the country and starkly obvious. The barrier transcends being just a symbolic division; it causes very real difficulties for daily routines. The school commute that should take 15-20 minutes become an hour-long journey. Reaching key services like supermarkets, educational facilities and care homes is made more difficult. The area can attract antisocial behaviour, with reports of rubbish being dumped over the wall and related issues. “You try to maintain a well-kept home and garden, and then you live opposite that,” said one local, gesturing towards the rusted metal wall. Community Spirit Against a Backdrop of Challenges At a local community centre, workers stress that need does not recognise postcodes. “Your postcode is not a reliable indicator of your level of challenge,” explained chief executive Tracey Good. Regardless of being placed in the lowest 10% for income, employment, education, health and crime, the estate retains a fierce loyalty and sense of togetherness among its residents. By contrast, Scartho is classified among the least deprived 10% nationally. A Similar Story: Stanhope in Ashford This phenomenon is mirrored across the country. The Stanhope area in Ashford, Kent, a 1960s overspill estate, is in the 10% most deprived of neighbourhoods in the country. It is closely bordered by spacious detached homes built in the 2000s that are in the wealthiest tenth for job prospects and quality of surroundings. “They might have larger properties, but here there’s a stronger community,” said Phil Hockley, 63. “It’s likely a lot of people in the new builds don’t even speak to each other.” The economic gap is evident: an average three-bedroom house sells for about £275,000 on the estate, while across the divide equivalent properties fetch about £410,000. Residents describe a palpable sense of neglect. “Our neighbourhood is neglected,” stated holistic health worker Susan Riley-Nevers. “In this area our facilities have slowly been taken away, and most of the issues we face here are related to financial hardship.” The rise in these ‘deprivation divides’ paints a portrait of an increasingly divided society, where wealth and deprivation are frequently awkwardly close neighbours.