The homes of people in Nunsthorpe, a postwar former council housing estate known locally as “The Nunny”, sit only a few metres away from their more affluent neighbours in Scartho with their conservatories and driveways.
Walking between the two is almost impossible because of a 1.8-metre-high (6ft) barricade between them, which blocks off roads and walkways that link the two areas in Grimsby, Lincolnshire.
Journeys that should only take a few seconds become a 25-minute walk down to the open field on the edge of the estate, or through the grounds of a hospital, to bypass the wall.
“It’s the posh-poor divide,” said Serenity Colley, 37, who lives on the Nunsthorpe estate with her partner and children. “It has been there for as long as I’ve known, since the new estate was built. I don’t think they’ll bring it down because I don’t think they’ll want to mix with us. In some ways I don’t blame them because they are spending a lot of money on those houses, they want to protect what they’ve got.
“There’s a massive gap and it’s blatantly obvious.”
A Guardian analysis of figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government – looking at the most and least deprived 10% of areas in England – reveals how deep inequality can run, sometimes across nothing more than a few metres of asphalt, a line of hedges or, in this case, a 6ft wall.
Years of austerity and underinvestment mean almost two-th
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