The Growing ‘Wealth-Poverty Gap’: How Prosperity and Deprivation Now Sit Cheek by Jowl in England.
In Nunsthorpe, residents occupy homes only a few metres from their more affluent counterparts in the adjacent Scartho village. One 1.8-metre-high barricade physically separates the two areas in the town of Grimsby, blocking off roads and walkways that once connected them.
“It’s the divide between rich and poor,” said a resident, aged 37. “It’s been like this for as long as I’ve known. I doubt they’ll take it down because I suspect they’ll want to mix with us.”
A Stark National Picture
Analysis of government statistics shows how deep disparity often exists, sometimes over little more than a few metres of tarmac, a hedge row or a wall. Decades of austerity and underinvestment mean a majority of local authorities now have a neighbourhood classified as one of the poorest in the country.
This geographical widening of deprivation has coincided with a sharp rise in the number of places where deprived and well-off residents end up living side by side. Just a few years ago, only 65 of the most deprived neighbourhoods adjoined one of the least deprived. That figure increased to 119 in the most recent data.
A Barrier Which Divides More Than Land
In Grimsby, the divide is the most pronounced in the country and starkly apparent. The wall transcends being just a metaphorical division; it causes very real problems for everyday life.
- The school commute that ought to take 15-20 minutes turn into an sixty-minute journey.
- Access to key services like supermarkets, schools and employment centres is made more difficult.
- The site can attract vandalism and loitering, with reports of litter being thrown over the wall and related problems.
“You try to maintain a well-kept home and garden, and then you live opposite that,” said one local, gesturing towards the rusted barricade.
Local Bonds Against a Backdrop of Challenges
Within a local community centre, workers stress that need does not recognise postcodes. “Where you live doesn’t necessarily indicate your level of challenge,” explained director a community leader.
Despite being placed in the most deprived 10% for multiple deprivation indicators, the estate boasts a strong sense and feeling of community among its inhabitants. By contrast, Scartho ranks among the least deprived 10% nationally.
A Similar Story: An Estate in Kent
This phenomenon is mirrored nationally. The Stanhope estate in Ashford, Kent, a mid-century overspill estate, is in the 10% most deprived of areas in England. It is closely bordered by spacious houses built in the early 2000s that are in the wealthiest tenth for employment and living environment.
“They may possess bigger houses, but here there’s a stronger community,” commented 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 clear: an typical family home sells for about £275,000 on the estate, while across the divide comparable properties fetch about £410,000.
Locals describe a palpable feeling of being overlooked. “This part of the community gets ignored,” stated holistic health worker Susan Riley-Nevers. “In this area our facilities have slowly been taken away, and the majority of the community problems here are related to financial hardship.”
The increase in these ‘inequality borders’ paints a portrait of an increasingly divided society, where prosperity and deprivation are often uncomfortably close neighbours.