The Growing ‘Posh-Poor Divide’: How Prosperity and Hardship Are Found Cheek by Jowl in England.
Within Nunsthorpe, inhabitants occupy properties only a few metres from their wealthier neighbours in the adjacent Scartho village. A six-foot-tall barricade physically divides the two communities in the town of Grimsby, sealing off roads and walkways that once connected them.
“This is the posh-poor divide,” said a resident, aged 37. “It’s been like this since I’ve known. I doubt they’ll take it down because I don’t think they’ll want to mix with us.”
An Increasingly Common National Picture
Analysis of official figures reveals the extent of inequality can run, sometimes across little more than a short distance of tarmac, a line of hedges or a barrier. Decades of austerity and underinvestment mean almost two-thirds of councils now have a neighbourhood ranking as one of the poorest in the nation.
This geographical widening of deprivation has coincided with a sharp rise in the quantity of locations where deprived and well-off people find themselves living side by side. In 2019, only 65 of the most deprived neighbourhoods bordered one of the wealthiest. That figure rose to 119 in the most recent data.
A Barrier Which Divides More Than Land
In Grimsby, the gap is the biggest in the country and painfully obvious. The barrier 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 detour.
- Reaching key services like grocery stores, schools and care homes is made more difficult.
- The area can attract vandalism and loitering, with reports 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,” noted one local, gesturing towards the rusted barricade.
Community Spirit Amidst Hardship
Within a local community centre, workers emphasise that need transcends addresses. “Your postcode is not a reliable indicator of your level of challenge,” said chief executive a community leader.
Despite ranking in the most deprived 10% for multiple deprivation indicators, the estate boasts a fierce loyalty and feeling of community among its inhabitants. By contrast, Scartho is classified among the most prosperous 10% overall.
Echoes Elsewhere: Stanhope in Ashford
This phenomenon is mirrored nationally. The Stanhope estate in Ashford, Kent, a 1960s overspill estate, is in the most disadvantaged tenth of areas in the country. It is immediately adjacent by large houses built in the 2000s that are in the wealthiest tenth for employment and living environment.
“They might have bigger houses, but here there’s more community,” said Phil Hockley, aged 63. “It’s likely many people in the new builds 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 homes fetch about £410,000.
Residents speak of a tangible feeling of being overlooked. “This part of the community is neglected,” stated resident Susan Riley-Nevers. “Over here our facilities have slowly been taken away, and most of the issues we face here are to do with poverty.”
The rise in these ‘deprivation divides’ presents a picture of an increasingly divided England, where wealth and deprivation are frequently awkwardly close neighbours.