A Rising ‘Posh-Poor Divide’: The Way Affluence and Hardship Now Sit Cheek by Jowl in Across England.
Within Nunsthorpe, inhabitants live in homes just several yards from their wealthier counterparts in the adjacent Scartho. A 1.8-metre-high barricade physically separates the two communities in the town of Grimsby, blocking off roads and walkways that once linked them.
“This is the posh-poor divide,” said Serenity Colley, aged 37. “It’s been like this since I’ve known. I doubt they’ll bring it down because I suspect they’ll want to mix with us.”
An Increasingly Common Pattern Across the Country
Data from government figures reveals how deep disparity can run, sometimes across little more than a few metres of tarmac, a hedge row or a wall. Years of budget cuts and lack of funding mean almost two-thirds of councils now contain a neighbourhood classified as one of the most deprived in the country.
The geographical widening of deprivation has led to a sharp increase in the quantity of places where disadvantaged and well-off people end up living side by side. Just a few years ago, only 65 of the most deprived neighbourhoods bordered one of the wealthiest. This number rose to 119 in the latest data.
A Barrier Which Divides More Than Space
At this Lincolnshire site, the divide is the most pronounced in the country and starkly obvious. The barrier is much more than a symbolic division; it creates tangible problems for daily routines.
- School runs that should take a quarter of an hour turn into an sixty-minute detour.
- Reaching important services like supermarkets, educational facilities and care homes is hindered.
- The site often sees vandalism and loitering, with instances of rubbish being dumped over the wall and related problems.
“People strive to have a well-kept home and garden, and then you live opposite that,” said one resident, gesturing towards the rusted barricade.
Local Bonds Against a Backdrop of Hardship
At Centre4, workers stress that need does not recognise postcodes. “Your postcode is not a reliable indicator of your level of challenge,” said chief executive a community leader.
Regardless of being placed in the most deprived 10% for multiple deprivation indicators, the estate retains a fierce loyalty and feeling of community among its inhabitants. Meanwhile, the neighbouring area ranks among the least deprived 10% overall.
Echoes Elsewhere: Stanhope in Ashford
This phenomenon is mirrored nationally. 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 2000s that are in the top 10% for job prospects and living environment.
“They might have larger properties, but here there’s more community,” commented a long-term resident, aged 63. “You’ll probably find a lot of people over there never even talk to each other.”
The economic divide is clear: an typical family home costs about £275,000 on the Stanhope estate, while across the divide equivalent properties go for about £410,000.
Residents speak of a tangible sense of neglect. “Our neighbourhood gets ignored,” stated holistic health worker Susan Riley-Nevers. “In this area our facilities have gradually disappeared, and most of the community problems here are related to financial hardship.”
The increase in these ‘deprivation divides’ presents a picture of an increasingly segregated society, where prosperity and deprivation are often uncomfortably in close proximity.
