A Growing ‘Posh-Poor Divide’: The Way Affluence and Hardship Are Found Cheek by Jowl in Across England.
In Nunsthorpe, residents live in homes only several yards from their wealthier neighbours in nearby Scartho village. One six-foot-tall barricade literally separates the two areas in the town of Grimsby, sealing off paths and streets that once connected them.
“It’s the posh-poor divide,” said Serenity Colley, 37. “It’s been like this since I’ve known. I don’t think they’ll bring it down because I suspect they’ll want to associate with us.”
An Increasingly Common National Picture
Data from government figures reveals how deep inequality can run, at times over nothing more than a few metres of asphalt, a line of hedges or a wall. Years of budget cuts and underinvestment mean a majority of local authorities now contain a locality ranking as one of the poorest in the nation.
This spread of deprivation has coincided with a significant increase in the number of places where deprived and well-off people find themselves living side by side. Just a few years ago, only 65 of the most deprived areas bordered one of the least deprived. That figure rose to 119 in the latest data.
A Barrier Which Does More Than Separate Land
In Grimsby, the gap is the most pronounced in the UK and painfully obvious. The wall is much more than a metaphorical divide; it causes tangible difficulties for everyday life.
- The school commute that should take a quarter of an hour turn into an hour-long journey.
- Reaching key amenities like supermarkets, educational facilities and employment centres is hindered.
- The area can attract antisocial behaviour, with instances of rubbish being thrown over the wall and related problems.
“People strive to have a well-kept home and garden, and then you live opposite that,” noted one resident, motioning at the rusted metal wall.
Local Bonds Against a Backdrop of Hardship
At Centre4, workers stress that support does not recognise postcodes. “Where you live doesn’t necessarily indicate your level of challenge,” explained director a community leader.
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 inhabitants. Meanwhile, Scartho is classified among the least deprived 10% nationally.
Echoes Elsewhere: An Estate in Kent
This pattern is mirrored nationally. The Stanhope area in Kent, a mid-century housing development, is in the 10% most deprived of areas in England. It is closely bordered by spacious houses 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 more community,” said a long-term resident, 63. “It’s likely many people over there never even talk to each other.”
The economic divide is evident: an typical family home costs about £275,000 on the estate, while across the divide equivalent homes fetch about £410,000.
Locals speak of a palpable sense of being overlooked. “This part of the community gets ignored,” stated resident Susan Riley-Nevers. “In this area our amenities have gradually disappeared, and most of the issues we face here are related to poverty.”
The rise in these ‘inequality borders’ presents a picture of an increasingly segregated England, where prosperity and deprivation are often awkwardly close neighbours.
