The Growing ‘Wealth-Poverty Gap’: How Prosperity and Deprivation Now Sit Cheek by Jowl in England.
Within Nunsthorpe, inhabitants live in properties just a few metres from their wealthier neighbours in the adjacent Scartho. One six-foot-tall wall physically divides the two communities in the town of Grimsby, blocking off roads and walkways that previously connected them.
“It’s the divide between rich and poor,” remarked Serenity Colley, aged 37. “It’s been like this since I’ve known. I don’t think they’ll bring it down because I suspect they’ll want to associate with us.”
An Increasingly Common Pattern Across the Country
Data from official figures reveals the extent of inequality often exists, at times across nothing more than a short distance of tarmac, a hedge row or a barrier. Years of austerity and underinvestment mean almost two-thirds of councils now have a locality ranking as one of the poorest in the country.
This spread of poverty has coincided with a significant rise in the number of locations where deprived and well-off residents end up as immediate neighbours. Just a few years ago, only 65 of the poorest areas adjoined one of the wealthiest. This number increased to 119 in the most recent data.
A Barrier Which Divides More Than Land
In Grimsby, the divide is the biggest in the UK and starkly obvious. The barrier transcends being just a symbolic divide; it creates tangible difficulties for daily routines.
- The school commute that should take a quarter of an hour turn into an sixty-minute journey.
- Access to important services like grocery stores, educational facilities and employment centres is hindered.
- The site can attract antisocial behaviour, with reports of rubbish being dumped over the wall and other problems.
“People strive to maintain a nice house and nice garden, and then you reside facing that,” noted one resident, motioning at the corroded barricade.
Local Bonds Against a Backdrop of Hardship
Within a local community centre, workers stress that need does not recognise postcodes. “Where you live is not a reliable indicator of your personal struggles,” said director a community leader.
Despite ranking in the lowest 10% for income, employment, education, health and crime, the estate boasts a strong sense and feeling of community among its inhabitants. Meanwhile, Scartho is classified 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 1960s overspill estate, is in the most disadvantaged tenth of areas in England. It is immediately adjacent by spacious houses built in the 2000s that sit in the wealthiest tenth for employment and living environment.
“They might have larger properties, but here there’s more community,” said a long-term resident, aged 63. “It’s likely many people over there never even talk to each other.”
The financial gap is evident: an average family home costs about £275,000 on the Stanhope estate, while across the divide comparable properties go for about £410,000.
Residents speak of a palpable feeling of being overlooked. “Our neighbourhood gets ignored,” said holistic health worker Susan. “Over here our amenities have gradually disappeared, and most of the community problems here are related to financial hardship.”
The increase in these ‘inequality borders’ paints a portrait of an ever more segregated England, where wealth and deprivation are often uncomfortably in close proximity.
