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

Within a postwar estate known as ‘The Nunny’, residents occupy homes only a few metres from their more affluent counterparts in nearby Scartho village. A six-foot-tall wall physically divides the two areas in the town of Grimsby, blocking off roads and walkways that once linked them.

“It’s the divide between rich and poor,” remarked a resident, aged 37. “It has been there since I’ve known. I doubt they’ll take it down because I don’t think they’ll want to associate with us.”

A Stark National Picture

Analysis of official statistics reveals how deep inequality can run, sometimes across little more than a short distance of asphalt, a hedge row or a wall. Decades of austerity and lack of funding have led to a situation where a majority of councils now have a locality ranking as one of the poorest in the country.

The geographical widening of poverty has coincided with a sharp rise in the number of locations where disadvantaged and affluent people end up living side by side. In 2019, just 65 of the most deprived areas adjoined one of the wealthiest. That figure rose to 119 in the latest data.

A Wall That Divides More Than Space

In Grimsby, the divide is the biggest in the UK and painfully apparent. The wall transcends being just a symbolic divide; it creates very real problems for daily routines.

• The school commute that ought to take a quarter of an hour become an sixty-minute journey.
• Access to key amenities like supermarkets, schools and employment centres is made more difficult.
• The site often sees antisocial behaviour, with reports of rubbish being dumped over the wall and other problems.

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

Local Bonds Amidst Hardship

Within a local community centre, staff emphasise that need does not recognise addresses. “Where you live doesn’t necessarily indicate your level of challenge,” explained chief executive Tracey Good.

Despite ranking in the most deprived 10% for multiple deprivation indicators, Nunsthorpe boasts a strong sense and sense of community among its residents. By contrast, Scartho is classified among the least deprived 10% nationally.

Echoes Elsewhere: Stanhope in Ashford

This pattern is repeated across the country. The Stanhope area in Ashford, Kent, a mid-century housing development, is in the most disadvantaged tenth of neighbourhoods in the country. It is closely bordered by spacious houses built in the early 2000s that sit in the top 10% for job prospects and living environment.

“They may possess larger properties, but here there’s a stronger community,” said a long-term resident, 63. “It’s likely a lot of people over there don’t even speak to each other.”

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

Residents speak of a tangible sense of neglect. “Our neighbourhood is neglected,” said resident Susan Riley-Nevers. “In this area our amenities have slowly been taken away, and the majority of the issues we face here are related to poverty.”

The increase in these ‘deprivation divides’ presents a picture of an ever more divided England, where prosperity and need are frequently uncomfortably close neighbours.