A Growing ‘Wealth-Poverty Gap’: How Affluence and Hardship Are Found Cheek by Jowl in England.
In Nunsthorpe, residents live in homes only a few metres from their more affluent neighbours in nearby Scartho village. One 1.8-metre-high barricade literally divides the two communities in the town of Grimsby, sealing off roads and walkways that once connected them.
“This is the divide between rich and poor,” said Serenity Colley, aged 37. “It’s been like this since I’ve known. I doubt they’ll take it down because I suspect they’ll want to mix with us.”
An Increasingly Common National Picture
Data from government figures shows the extent of inequality can run, at times across nothing more than a short distance of tarmac, a line of hedges or a barrier. Decades of budget cuts and lack of funding have led to a situation where almost two-thirds of local authorities now have a neighbourhood classified as one of the most deprived in the country.
The spread of deprivation has coincided with a significant increase in the quantity of locations where deprived and well-off people end up living side by side. In 2019, just 65 of the most deprived areas bordered one of the wealthiest. This number rose to 119 in the most recent data.
A Wall That Divides More Than Land
In Grimsby, the gap is the biggest in the UK and painfully obvious. The wall is much more than a metaphorical division; it creates very real difficulties for everyday life.
- School runs that should take a quarter of an hour become an sixty-minute detour.
- Access to important services like grocery stores, educational facilities and employment centres is hindered.
- The area can attract antisocial behaviour, with reports of rubbish being dumped over the wall and related problems.
“You try to maintain a nice house and nice garden, and then you live opposite that,” said one local, motioning at the corroded barricade.
Local Bonds Amidst Challenges
At Centre4, staff emphasise that support transcends addresses. “Where you live doesn’t necessarily indicate your level of challenge,” said chief executive Tracey Good.
Regardless of being placed 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 is classified among the most prosperous 10% overall.
Echoes Elsewhere: Stanhope in Ashford
This phenomenon is repeated across the country. The Stanhope estate in Ashford, Kent, a 1960s overspill estate, is in the 10% most deprived of neighbourhoods in England. It is immediately adjacent by spacious detached homes built in the early 2000s that are in the top 10% for job prospects and quality of surroundings.
“They may possess bigger houses, but here there’s more community,” commented Phil Hockley, aged 63. “It’s likely many people over there don’t even speak to each other.”
The economic divide is evident: an average family home sells for about £275,000 on the estate, while on the other side equivalent properties go for about £410,000.
Locals speak of a palpable sense of neglect. “Our neighbourhood is neglected,” stated holistic health worker Susan Riley-Nevers. “In this area our amenities have slowly been taken away, and most of the issues we face here are related to financial hardship.”
The rise in these ‘inequality borders’ presents a portrait of an increasingly segregated England, where prosperity and need are frequently uncomfortably in close proximity.
