Remarkable new evidence from a study by the academic Philip McCann, The UK Regional-National Economic Problem, shows that while economic output per head, measured by gross value added, is near £43,000 a year in London – and as high as £135,000 in inner west London – almost half the UK population lives, in regions where output per head is below £22,325.
Indeed the regional divide is so vast that, at £13,500 per person, economic output in Gwent, Wales, is a tenth that of one of the wealthiest part of London; and in the Tees and Welsh valleys it has now fallen below that of Lithuania, Slovenia and Slovakia.
Of course, in both the north and south we are all better off than 100 years ago, but the divide in income, jobs and pay is increasing faster than ever. Average household incomes in Wales, Northern Ireland and the northern regions of England are around 60% of those in Greater London. Last year, when jobs rose by 277,000 in London they rose by only 1,000 in the north-west and fell by 40,000 in the north-east. In London 10% of workers are officially low paid. In the north the figure is 25%. [...]
All this leaves us with a United Kingdom that is united in name only. Britain now has the most extreme inter-regional inequalities of any country in western Europe, yet the biggest concentration of political power in a centre that is singularly ill equipped to narrow the divide. Quite simply, our London-centric constitution has failed to unlock the potential, unleash the enterprise, or even meet the needs and aspirations of, our northern regions.
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