From the Guardian:

Poor and wealthy households in Britain are becoming more and more segregated from the rest of society as the UK faces the highest inequality levels for 40 years, according to a study published today.

A report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation provides a groundbreaking geographical analysis of changes in the distribution of wealth over time, and reveals an increasingly divided nation.

It shows that already rich areas – particularly the south-east of England – have become disproportionately wealthier over four decades, while in areas of some cities more than half of all households are now “breadline poor”, on a level of relative poverty with enough to live on but without access to opportunities enjoyed by the rest of society, yet above the level of absolute poverty, or “core poor”.

“Poor, rich and average households became less and less likely to live next door to one another between 1970 and 2000,” says the study, Poverty, Wealth and Place in Britain, 1968 to 2005.

Urban “clustering” of poverty has increased, while wealthy households have concentrated in city outskirts. Meanwhile, the number of average households – those categorised as neither poor nor wealthy – has been shrinking.