The Growing ‘Posh-Poor Divide’: The Way Affluence and Hardship Now Sit Cheek by Jowl in England.

Within Nunsthorpe, inhabitants occupy properties only several yards from their wealthier counterparts in the adjacent Scartho. One 1.8-metre-high barricade literally separates the two areas in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, sealing off roads and walkways that once linked them.

“This is the posh-poor divide,” remarked Serenity Colley, aged 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 National Picture

Data from government figures shows the extent of inequality often exists, sometimes across nothing more than a short distance of tarmac, a hedge row or a wall. Years of austerity and underinvestment have led to a situation where a majority of local authorities now contain a neighbourhood classified as one of the poorest in the country.

This spread of deprivation has coincided with a sharp increase in the quantity of locations where disadvantaged and affluent people find themselves as immediate neighbours. Just a few years ago, just 65 of the most deprived neighbourhoods bordered one of the least deprived. This number rose to 119 in the latest data.

A Barrier Which Divides More Than Land

At this Lincolnshire site, the divide is the biggest in the country and starkly obvious. The wall is much more than a metaphorical divide; it causes tangible problems for everyday life.

• School runs that should take a quarter of an hour become an sixty-minute journey.
• Reaching key services like supermarkets, schools and employment centres is hindered.
• The site can attract antisocial behaviour, with reports of rubbish being dumped over the wall and related problems.

“You try to have a nice house and nice garden, and then you live opposite that,” noted one local, motioning at the rusted metal wall.

Local Bonds Amidst Challenges

At Centre4, staff stress that need transcends addresses. “Your postcode is not a reliable indicator of your level of challenge,” said director Tracey Good.

Despite being placed in the most deprived 10% for multiple deprivation indicators, the estate retains a fierce loyalty and sense of community among its inhabitants. Meanwhile, the neighbouring area ranks among the most prosperous 10% nationally.

Echoes Elsewhere: An Estate in Kent

This phenomenon is repeated nationally. The Stanhope estate in Kent, a mid-century overspill estate, is in the most disadvantaged tenth of neighbourhoods in the country. It is closely bordered by large detached homes built in the 2000s that sit in the wealthiest tenth for employment and quality of surroundings.

“They may possess bigger houses, but here there’s more community,” said a long-term resident, 63. “You’ll probably find many people in the new builds don’t even speak to each other.”

The financial divide is evident: an typical family home sells for about £275,000 on the Stanhope estate, while across the divide equivalent properties fetch about £410,000.

Residents describe a tangible feeling of being overlooked. “Our neighbourhood is neglected,” stated holistic health worker Susan. “Over here our amenities have gradually disappeared, and most of the issues we face here are to do with poverty.”

The rise in these ‘deprivation divides’ presents a picture of an increasingly segregated society, where wealth and deprivation are often uncomfortably in close proximity.