A Rising ‘Posh-Poor Divide’: The Way Affluence and Deprivation Now Sit Cheek by Jowl in England.

Within Nunsthorpe, inhabitants occupy properties just several yards from their more affluent neighbours in the adjacent Scartho village. One six-foot-tall barricade literally divides the two communities in the town of Grimsby, blocking off paths and streets that once connected them.

“This is the posh-poor divide,” said Serenity Colley, 37. “It’s been like this 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

Analysis of official figures reveals how deep inequality can run, sometimes over little more than a short distance of asphalt, a line of hedges or a barrier. Decades of budget cuts and underinvestment mean a majority of local authorities now have a locality classified as one of the most deprived in the country.

This geographical widening of poverty has coincided with a significant rise in the number of locations where deprived and well-off residents end up as immediate neighbours. In 2019, just 65 of the most deprived areas adjoined one of the wealthiest. That figure rose to 119 in the most recent data.

A Barrier Which Does More Than Separate Space

At this Lincolnshire site, the divide is the most pronounced in the country and starkly apparent. The barrier 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 turn into an hour-long detour.
• Reaching important services like supermarkets, schools and employment centres is made more difficult.
• The area can attract vandalism and loitering, with instances of litter being dumped over the wall and related problems.

“People strive to maintain a nice house and nice garden, and then you live opposite that,” said one local, motioning at the corroded barricade.

Local Bonds Against a Backdrop of Challenges

At Centre4, staff stress that support does not recognise addresses. “Your postcode is not a reliable indicator of your personal struggles,” said director Tracey Good.

Despite being placed in the most deprived 10% for income, employment, education, health and crime, Nunsthorpe retains a strong sense and feeling 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 mirrored nationally. The Stanhope area in Ashford, Kent, a 1960s overspill estate, is in the most disadvantaged tenth of areas in the country. It is closely bordered by large houses built in the early 2000s that are in the wealthiest tenth for job prospects and quality of surroundings.

“They might have bigger houses, but here there’s more community,” said a long-term resident, 63. “You’ll probably find a lot of 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 estate, while across the divide equivalent homes fetch about £410,000.

Locals speak of a palpable sense of being overlooked. “Our neighbourhood gets ignored,” stated resident Susan. “Over here our facilities have gradually disappeared, and the majority of the community problems here are to do with poverty.”

The rise in these ‘inequality borders’ presents a picture of an increasingly segregated England, where prosperity and deprivation are frequently awkwardly close neighbours.