The Growing ‘Posh-Poor Divide’: How Prosperity and Deprivation Now Sit Side by Side in Across England.

In Nunsthorpe, inhabitants occupy properties only a few metres from their wealthier neighbours in the adjacent Scartho village. One 1.8-metre-high wall physically divides the two communities in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, blocking off roads and walkways that previously connected them.

“It’s the divide between rich and poor,” remarked a resident, 37. “It has been there for as long as I’ve known. I doubt they’ll bring it down because I suspect they’ll want to associate with us.”

An Increasingly Common Pattern Across the Country

Analysis of official figures shows how deep disparity often exists, sometimes over nothing more than a few metres of asphalt, a line of hedges or a wall. Years of austerity and underinvestment 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 led to a significant rise in the number of locations where deprived and affluent people end up as immediate neighbours. In 2019, only 65 of the poorest areas adjoined one of the least deprived. This number rose to 119 in the most recent data.

A Barrier Which Does More Than Separate Land

In Grimsby, the gap is the biggest in the country and starkly apparent. The wall transcends being just a metaphorical divide; it causes very real problems for everyday life.

• School runs that ought to take a quarter of an hour become an sixty-minute detour.
• Reaching important services like supermarkets, educational facilities and care homes is hindered.
• The site can attract vandalism and loitering, with reports of rubbish being thrown over the wall and other issues.

“People strive to have a nice house and nice garden, and then you live opposite that,” said one resident, motioning at the rusted barricade.

Community Spirit Against a Backdrop of Hardship

At Centre4, staff 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.

Despite ranking in the lowest 10% for income, employment, education, health and crime, Nunsthorpe boasts a strong sense and feeling of togetherness among its residents. By contrast, the neighbouring area is classified among the most prosperous 10% overall.

A Similar Story: Stanhope in Ashford

This phenomenon is mirrored across the country. The Stanhope area in Ashford, Kent, a mid-century housing development, is in the 10% most deprived of neighbourhoods in the country. It is immediately adjacent by large houses built in the 2000s that are in the wealthiest tenth for employment and living environment.

“They may possess larger properties, but here there’s a stronger community,” said Phil Hockley, aged 63. “You’ll probably find a lot of people in the new builds don’t even speak to each other.”

The financial gap is clear: an average three-bedroom house sells for about £275,000 on the Stanhope estate, while on the other side equivalent homes go for about £410,000.

Locals speak of a tangible sense of being overlooked. “This part of the community gets ignored,” said resident Susan. “In this area our facilities have slowly been taken away, and the majority of the community problems here are related to poverty.”

The increase in these ‘inequality borders’ presents a portrait of an increasingly divided society, where wealth and deprivation are often awkwardly in close proximity.