A Growing ‘Wealth-Poverty Gap’: The Way Prosperity and Deprivation Are Found Side by Side in England.
In Nunsthorpe, residents occupy homes just a few metres from their more affluent neighbours in the adjacent Scartho village. One 1.8-metre-high barricade physically separates the two communities in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, blocking off roads and walkways that once connected them.
“This is the divide between rich and poor,” remarked a resident, aged 37. “It’s been like this for as long as I’ve known. I don’t think they’ll take it down because I don’t think they’ll want to mix with us.”
A Stark Pattern Across the Country
Analysis of official statistics shows the extent of disparity often exists, at times over nothing more than a short distance of tarmac, a hedge row or a wall. Decades of austerity and underinvestment have led to a situation where a majority of councils now contain a locality ranking as one of the most deprived in the country.
This spread of deprivation has led to a sharp rise in the quantity of locations where deprived and affluent residents end up as immediate neighbours. Just a few years ago, just 65 of the most deprived neighbourhoods adjoined one of the least deprived. This number rose to 119 in the latest data.
A Wall That Divides More Than Land
In Grimsby, the divide is the biggest in the UK and starkly apparent. The wall is much more than a symbolic divide; it creates tangible difficulties for daily routines.
- The school commute that should take a quarter of an hour become an sixty-minute journey.
- Reaching key amenities like supermarkets, educational facilities and care homes is made more difficult.
- The area can attract antisocial behaviour, with instances of litter being thrown over the wall and related issues.
“You try to maintain a nice house and nice garden, and then you live opposite that,” noted one resident, motioning at the corroded barricade.
Community Spirit Against a Backdrop of Hardship
At a local community centre, workers stress that need transcends postcodes. “Where you live doesn’t necessarily indicate your personal struggles,” said chief executive Tracey Good.
Despite ranking in the lowest 10% for income, employment, education, health and crime, the estate boasts a strong sense and feeling of togetherness among its inhabitants. By contrast, Scartho ranks among the most prosperous 10% overall.
A Similar Story: Stanhope in Ashford
This phenomenon is repeated across the country. The Stanhope estate in Kent, a 1960s housing development, is in the most disadvantaged tenth of areas in the country. It is immediately adjacent by spacious detached homes built in the 2000s that are 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. “You’ll probably find many people in the new builds don’t even speak to each other.”
The financial divide is evident: 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.
Residents describe a tangible feeling of neglect. “Our neighbourhood gets ignored,” said holistic health worker Susan Riley-Nevers. “In this area our facilities have gradually disappeared, and most of the community problems here are to do with financial hardship.”
The rise in these ‘deprivation divides’ presents a picture of an increasingly divided England, where wealth and deprivation are often uncomfortably close neighbours.
