The Growing ‘Posh-Poor Divide’: How Affluence and Deprivation Are Found Cheek by Jowl in Across England.

In Nunsthorpe, residents occupy properties just several yards from their wealthier counterparts in nearby Scartho. One 1.8-metre-high barricade physically separates the two communities in the town of Grimsby, sealing off roads and walkways that once connected them.

“It’s the posh-poor divide,” said a resident, 37. “It has been there 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.”

An Increasingly Common Pattern Across the Country

Data from government figures reveals how deep disparity can run, sometimes across nothing more than a short distance of tarmac, a line of hedges or a wall. Years of austerity and lack of funding mean a majority of councils now contain a locality ranking as one of the poorest in the nation.

The geographical widening of deprivation has coincided with a sharp rise in the quantity of locations where disadvantaged and well-off people find themselves as immediate neighbours. In 2019, just 65 of the poorest neighbourhoods adjoined one of the wealthiest. That figure rose to 119 in the most recent data.

A Barrier Which Does More Than Separate Space

In Grimsby, the gap is the most pronounced in the country and painfully obvious. The wall transcends being just a metaphorical divide; it creates very real problems for daily routines.

• The school commute that ought to take a quarter of an hour turn into an hour-long journey.
• Reaching important services like grocery stores, educational facilities and care homes is hindered.
• The area can attract vandalism and loitering, with instances of rubbish being thrown over the wall and related problems.

“People strive to maintain a well-kept home and garden, and then you live opposite that,” said one resident, motioning at the rusted metal wall.

Local Bonds Amidst Hardship

At Centre4, workers stress that support does not recognise addresses. “Where you live doesn’t necessarily indicate your level of challenge,” said director a community leader.

Regardless of ranking in the most deprived 10% for income, employment, education, health and crime, the estate boasts a strong sense and feeling of togetherness among its residents. Meanwhile, Scartho is classified among the most prosperous 10% nationally.

Echoes Elsewhere: Stanhope in Ashford

This phenomenon is mirrored across the country. The Stanhope area in Ashford, Kent, a mid-century overspill estate, is in the most disadvantaged tenth of neighbourhoods in England. It is immediately adjacent by spacious houses built in the 2000s that are in the top 10% for employment and quality of surroundings.

“They may possess bigger houses, but here there’s more community,” commented a long-term resident, 63. “You’ll probably find many people over there never even talk to each other.”

The financial divide is evident: an typical three-bedroom house costs about £275,000 on the Stanhope estate, while across the divide comparable properties go for about £410,000.

Locals speak of a palpable feeling of neglect. “Our neighbourhood gets ignored,” said holistic health worker Susan Riley-Nevers. “In this area our amenities have slowly been taken away, and the majority of the issues we face here are to do with financial hardship.”

The rise in these ‘deprivation divides’ paints a portrait of an ever more segregated society, where wealth and need are often awkwardly in close proximity.