PICTURE the scene – you have just queued up at a foodbank to collect a tin of beans, pasta and essentials to feed your family.

As you walk home you see multi-million pound homes to your left, but you turn the corner into your estate full of tired bedsits and people living on the breadline.

For many Southend residents, this is a reality as the polarising difference between the “haves and have nots” in the city is laid bare.

The stubbornly high levels of poverty in the city, in areas where bedsits and social housing are within a stone’s throw of leafy avenues and £1million plus homes, has long been a feature of Southend.

Now, new census data has revealed that divide is clearer than ever with a fifth of households in Southend classed as the most privileged in society.

The latest Office for National Statistics data show 29,566 of 142,062 applicable households, 20.8 per cent, were among the most affluent in Southend while 21.7 per cent were among the most deprived.

Following the Covid pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis, more families than ever struggle to make ends meet.

Gavin Dixon, who heads up Kings Church which meets at StCedd’s in Bridgwater Drive, and the Kings Money Advice Centre, said: “Undoubtedly, those that had very little before the cost of living crisis have even less now. There is a percentage of the population of the city who tighten their belt to pay for a few extras but for some people in the city it’s not had a massive impact.

“Then you’ve got people right at the bottom who are in despair as to what they do. For them food inflation is massive and I try not to be political but if the Government says they’ve halved inflation that just means it’s only going up by half as much.

“It’s still going up so it’s still unaffordable for people.”

Mr Dixon added: “We have a waiting list. We’re all volunteers helping as many people as we can. My philosophy is that if you lift people at the bottom up they then stop needing so many of the support mechanisms that they do now.

“If you give them security of housing then they don’t have to be ripped off by the private sector and therefore their housing benefit doesn’t need to be quite so high.

“It also covers my faith angle which is we should be looking after the poor because if we do that firstly their health improves therefore they won’t use so much access to the NHS. If you make a big effort to support those at the bottom end actually it benefits everybody.”