Prime minister David Cameron wants to unite the UK under his vision of a "Big Society", but in reality there is a growing rift between the rich and the poor in Britain, most clearly seen in the country's widening property prices last year.

While property prices in the poorest residential neighbourhoods fell by nearly 1% last year, values in the UK's 20 most exclusive postcodes grew by 3% as short supply buoyed prices, according to estate agent Chesterton Humberts in its annual House Price Poll of Polls in conjunction with the Centre for Economics and Business Research.