The Growing ‘Wealth-Poverty Gap’: How Affluence and Hardship Now Sit Cheek by Jowl in Across England.
In Nunsthorpe, residents live in properties only several yards from their wealthier neighbours in the adjacent Scartho. A 1.8-metre-high wall physically separates the two areas in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, blocking off paths and streets that once linked them.
“This is the divide between rich and poor,” said a resident, 37. “It has been there for as long as I’ve known. I don’t think they’ll bring it down because I don’t think they’ll want to associate with us.”
A Stark National Picture
Analysis of government figures reveals the extent of inequality can run, sometimes over nothing more than a short distance of asphalt, a hedge row or a wall. Decades of budget cuts and lack of funding have led to a situation where a majority of councils now have a locality classified as one of the poorest in the country.
This geographical widening of poverty has coincided with a significant rise in the number of locations where disadvantaged and well-off residents end up living side by side. Just a few years ago, just 65 of the poorest neighbourhoods adjoined one of the least deprived. That figure increased to 119 in the most recent data.
A Barrier Which Does More Than Separate Land
In Grimsby, the divide is the biggest in the UK and painfully obvious. The barrier transcends being just a symbolic divide; it creates very real difficulties for everyday life.
- School runs that should take 15-20 minutes turn into an sixty-minute journey.
- Access to key services like grocery stores, educational facilities and employment centres is made more difficult.
- The area can attract antisocial behaviour, with reports of litter being dumped over the wall and other issues.
“People strive to maintain a well-kept home and garden, and then you live opposite that,” noted one resident, motioning at the rusted metal wall.
Local Bonds Against a Backdrop of Challenges
At a local community centre, staff stress that support transcends addresses. “Your postcode is not a reliable indicator of your personal struggles,” said chief executive a community leader.
Regardless of being placed in the lowest 10% for multiple deprivation indicators, the estate boasts a strong sense and feeling of community among its residents. Meanwhile, the neighbouring area ranks among the least deprived 10% overall.
Echoes Elsewhere: Stanhope in Ashford
This phenomenon is repeated across the country. The Stanhope area in Kent, a 1960s housing development, is in the most disadvantaged tenth of areas in the country. It is closely bordered by large detached homes built in the 2000s that sit in the wealthiest tenth for job prospects and quality of surroundings.
“They might have bigger houses, but here there’s more community,” commented a long-term resident, 63. “It’s likely a lot of people in the new builds never even talk to each other.”
The economic gap is evident: an typical family home sells for about £275,000 on the Stanhope estate, while on the other side equivalent properties go for about £410,000.
Residents describe a tangible sense of neglect. “Our neighbourhood gets ignored,” stated resident Susan Riley-Nevers. “Over here our amenities have gradually disappeared, and most of the community problems here are related to financial hardship.”
The rise in these ‘inequality borders’ presents a portrait of an ever more segregated society, where prosperity and deprivation are frequently uncomfortably close neighbours.
