A new report says that the UK has nine out of the ten poorest regions in northern Europe, with suggestions that the rapid industrial decline brought about under Margaret Thatcher is chiefly responsible for creating pockets of poverty in one of the World’s richest economies.
By Jack Peat, Jun 6, 2018
First published in The London Economic
The UK has nine out of the ten poorest regions in northern Europe, with suggestions that the rapid industrial decline brought about under Margaret Thatcher is chiefly responsible for creating pockets of poverty in one of the World’s richest economies.
West Wales, Durham and Tees Valley, South Yorkshire and Northern Ireland all rank highly as the poorest areas in Europe in a report by Inequality Briefing.
The report notes that despite Britain having a similar economic make-up to its northern European counterparts, it is a far more unequal country.
Inner London ranked as the richest area in Northern Europe in the study, but it was alone in the top ten richest list.
Meanwhile nine areas in the UK entered into the top ten poorest, with Hainaut in Belgium the lone exception.
Other research carried out by Inequality Briefing has found the gap between the richest and poorest region in the UK, in terms of disposable income, is the widest in the EU.
The findings reveal that the UK is highly dependent on London and its environs, with just one British region other than the capital – the south-east of England – having a GDP per capita in excess of the EU-15 average, meaning that just 27 per cent of the UK population live in regions wealthier than that EU average.
And far from catching-up with the richer parts of the EU, the UK’s poor regions have fallen further behind
