Communities behind locked gates

A top policeman has issued a stark warning about a "fractured" society in which the wealthy live in secure, gated housing complexes to avoid spiralling rates of crime outside.

The day after former social exclusion minister Barbara Roche spoke of an alarming gap between rich and poor, which is still widening under Labour, Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner Sir Ian Blair has revealed his fears for the future.

He speaks out tonight in a BBC drama-documentary that paints a frightening picture of a divided London, with wealthy enclaves protected by security guards from the lawless world outside.

Sir Ian said he believed gated communities could threaten society's stability.

There are already 1,000 such complexes in Britain, closed to nonresidents and guarded with security systems and surveillance equipment.

And in many suburbs residents are clubbing together to hire private security guards to protect their homes. "If one group retires behind their moat ... that is a society which is in my view heading towards total fracture, and I don't want to be in it," said Sir Ian.

BBC2's If Things Don't Get Better is set in 2014. It depicts a fictional north London development, Regent's Court, where fearful residents take comfort in their gates, guards and panic buttons. Experts believe that within a decade the UK could follow the example of the US, where 15 per cent of the population live in gated communities.

The film shows the residents being targeted by car thieves and vandals. In response they have the entire street blocked off by guards, with nonresidents forced to use alternative routes.

Sir Ian added: "We work with private security doing what it does best - guarding factories, retailers, goods in transit. We do not want private securitymoving to a situation where they become quasi-police. I know they provide a quasi-policing role... across lots of parts of Europe, South Africa, South America and bits of the US, but I do not want to see that here. We need a visible, publicly paid police presence in order that society functions properly."

However, Norman Brennan of the Victims of Crime Trust, sympathises with residents troubled by anti-social behaviour. He said of the culprits: "If they think that behaviour is acceptable now, what sort of behaviour do they think will be acceptable from their children? I fear for the future. I understand why more and more people live within gated communities when violent crime and fear of crime is out of control."

Economics commentator Will Hutton said: "It's becoming a very polarised society, almost an apartheid of rich and poor." Ms Roche highlighted this issue when she told the Social Market Foundation think tank about recent research showing that " geographical polarisation" between rich and poor has been growing for decades.

The trend has continued under Labour, although at a slower pace than under the last Tory government. A similar gap has grown along ethnic lines.

Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors research recently found that 65 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds were enthusiastic about gated communities. The report claimed that Britons are suffering from a "crime complex" - a fear of crime disproportionate to the reality. According to the 2001 British Crime Survey, two-thirds of people believe crime has risen in the past two years. In fact there was a 14 per cent drop over the period.