A Growing ‘Wealth-Poverty Gap’: The Way Affluence and Deprivation Now Sit Cheek by Jowl in England.
Within a postwar estate known as ‘The Nunny’, inhabitants occupy homes only several yards from their more affluent counterparts in the adjacent Scartho village. A 1.8-metre-high barricade physically divides the two areas in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, blocking off paths and streets that previously linked them.
“This is the posh-poor divide,” said Serenity Colley, 37. “It’s been like this since 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 National Picture
Analysis of official figures reveals the extent of inequality often exists, at times across nothing more than a few metres of asphalt, a hedge row or a wall. Years of austerity and underinvestment mean a majority of local authorities now contain a locality ranking as one of the most deprived in the country.
This geographical widening of deprivation has coincided with a significant increase in the number of locations where deprived and affluent residents find themselves as immediate neighbours. Just a few years ago, just 65 of the poorest areas bordered one of the wealthiest. That figure rose to 119 in the most recent data.
A Wall That Does More Than Separate Space
In Grimsby, the divide is the most pronounced in the UK and starkly obvious. The barrier 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 turn into an hour-long detour.
- Reaching important services like supermarkets, educational facilities and employment centres is made more difficult.
- The area often sees vandalism and loitering, with reports of litter being dumped over the wall and other problems.
“You try to have a nice house and nice garden, and then you live opposite that,” said one local, motioning at the rusted metal wall.
Local Bonds Against a Backdrop of Hardship
At Centre4, staff emphasise that need does not recognise postcodes. “Your postcode is not a reliable indicator of your personal struggles,” explained chief executive Tracey Good.
Regardless of being placed in the most deprived 10% for multiple deprivation indicators, the estate retains a strong sense and sense of togetherness among its residents. Meanwhile, the neighbouring area ranks among the least deprived 10% overall.
Echoes Elsewhere: An Estate in Kent
This phenomenon is repeated nationally. The Stanhope area in Kent, a mid-century housing development, is in the 10% most deprived of neighbourhoods in the country. It is immediately adjacent by spacious houses built in the 2000s that are in the wealthiest tenth for employment and living environment.
“They may possess bigger houses, but here there’s more community,” commented a long-term resident, 63. “It’s likely many people in the new builds 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 go for about £410,000.
Locals speak of a palpable sense of neglect. “Our neighbourhood gets ignored,” stated holistic health worker Susan. “Over here our facilities have gradually disappeared, and most of the community problems here are related to poverty.”
The rise in these ‘inequality borders’ paints a picture of an increasingly divided society, where wealth and need are frequently uncomfortably in close proximity.
