A Rising ‘Posh-Poor Divide’: How Affluence and Deprivation Now Sit Side by Side in Across England.

Within a postwar estate known as ‘The Nunny’, residents occupy homes just several yards from their more affluent counterparts in the adjacent Scartho village. A six-foot-tall barricade literally separates 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, aged 37. “It has been there since I’ve known. I doubt they’ll bring it down because I don’t think they’ll want to mix with us.”

A Stark National Picture

Data from official figures reveals the extent of disparity can run, at times across little more than a short distance of asphalt, a hedge row or a barrier. Decades of austerity and lack of funding have led to a situation where almost two-thirds of councils now contain a neighbourhood classified as one of the most deprived in the country.

This spread of deprivation has led to a sharp rise in the number of places where disadvantaged and affluent residents end up as immediate neighbours. In 2019, only 65 of the poorest neighbourhoods bordered one of the least deprived. That figure increased to 119 in the latest data.

A Barrier Which Does More Than Separate Land

At this Lincolnshire site, the divide is the most pronounced in the UK and starkly obvious. The barrier transcends being just a metaphorical divide; it creates tangible difficulties for daily routines.

• The school commute that ought to take a quarter of an hour become an sixty-minute journey.
• Reaching key amenities like grocery stores, educational facilities and employment centres is hindered.
• The site can attract antisocial behaviour, with instances of litter being thrown over the wall and related issues.

“People strive to have a well-kept home and garden, and then you live opposite that,” said one local, gesturing towards the rusted barricade.

Local Bonds Amidst Hardship

Within Centre4, staff stress that support does not recognise addresses. “Where you live doesn’t necessarily indicate your level of challenge,” said director a community leader.

Despite ranking in the most deprived 10% for income, employment, education, health and crime, the estate retains a strong sense and feeling of community among its inhabitants. By contrast, Scartho ranks among the least deprived 10% overall.

Echoes Elsewhere: Stanhope in Ashford

This pattern is repeated nationally. The Stanhope area in Kent, a 1960s overspill estate, is in the most disadvantaged tenth of areas in England. It is immediately adjacent by large houses built in the 2000s that sit in the wealthiest tenth for employment and quality of surroundings.

“They may possess larger properties, but here there’s more community,” commented Phil Hockley, aged 63. “It’s likely many people in the new builds don’t even speak to each other.”

The financial divide is clear: an typical three-bedroom house sells for 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 is neglected,” said resident Susan Riley-Nevers. “Over here our amenities have slowly been taken away, and the majority of the community problems here are to do with financial hardship.”

The rise in these ‘deprivation divides’ presents a portrait of an increasingly divided England, where prosperity and deprivation are frequently uncomfortably in close proximity.