Almost no progress made on UK regional household income divide in 30 years, report finds

The gap in household incomes between the richest and poorest parts of the UK has remained largely unchanged for three decades, a new analysis shows, despite repeated government pledges to rebalance the country's economic geography. A report from the Resolution Foundation found that gross household disposable income per person in London, at £27,900, was three-fifths higher than in Northern Ireland, at £17,300, a ratio that has held steady since 1997 [1]. At the local level, incomes in Kensington and Chelsea (£60,584) were four and a half times those in Leicester (£13,398), a disparity that has persisted for almost 30 years [1]. The foundation also found that 54% of local authorities in the poorest fifth for income per person in 1997 remained in that bracket in 2023, while 82% of the richest places stayed at the top [1]. The findings underscore the scale of the challenge facing incoming prime minister Andy Burnham, who has placed regional inequality at the centre of his agenda [1]. The report noted that the income gap between the richest and poorest tenth of local authorities did not narrow between 2019 and 2023, covering the period of Boris Johnson's "levelling-up" programme [1]. Some cities have made gains. Manchester's gross household disposable income per person grew by 40% in real terms between 1997 and 2023, though at £16,500 it remains well behind London and several other large northern English cities [1]. Ruth Curtice, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, said Manchester's revival showed "decline is not destiny" but cautioned that Britain's big regional cities continued to underperform [1]. The foundation contrasted UK investment levels with those of Germany, which allocated roughly £70bn annually for 25 years on post-reunification economic integration, while UK levelling-up related spending in 2022 stood at just £4bn [1]. Curtice said: "Unless that investment is taken seriously, the economic and political cost of Britain's geographic divides will continue" [1]. Broader data on UK poverty provides additional context. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation reported that in 2021, about one in five people in the UK lived in poverty, with children consistently experiencing the highest rates over the past quarter-century [3]. In 2018, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights said British government policies and cuts to social support were "entrenching high levels of poverty and inflicting unnecessary misery" [3]. The government at the time rejected the findings, pointing to rising household incomes and a reduction in absolute poverty [3].