{"id":82888,"date":"2026-09-03T04:54:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T04:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/almost-half-of-households-do-not-see-benefits-of-economic-growth-report-says\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T04:54:02","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T04:54:02","slug":"almost-half-of-households-do-not-see-benefits-of-economic-growth-report-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/almost-half-of-households-do-not-see-benefits-of-economic-growth-report-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Almost half of households do not see benefits of economic growth, report says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Almost half of people in Britain live in areas where economic growth does not translate into a better quality of life with a &#8220;stark&#8221; North-South divide in the spending power of households, a new report finds.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Researchers at consultancy firm PwC said every region the north of England, midlands and Wales had a lower spending power than the country&#8217;s average, with London and the South East comfortably above.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The findings come as Prime Minister Andy Burnham has pledged to tackle the cost of living and regional inequalities in order to boost living standards.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But questions remain over the new PM&#8217;s economic policies with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c8d39vq779no\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">surges in UK government borrowing costs set to impact public spending choices.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The report released on Thursday said the equivalent of 12.5 million households &#8211; 46% &#8211; lived in parts of the country where economic growth, often seen through increased business investment and job opportunities, were not leading to better living standards.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It said households in the north east of England had a spending power 6.6% below the national average, equivalent to \u00a31,542 less a year. The north west was \u00a31,493 less, while Yorkshire and the Humber were worst off with spending power down \u00a31,917 comparatively.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Meanwhile, households in the South East were found to have spending power 9% above the national average, worth an additional \u00a32,154 a year, followed by London.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Household spending power is seen as a good measure of whether economic growth is improving living standards. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">PwC says it measures this by looking at income after taxes and housing costs, and takes into account the size and makeup of a household &#8211; which is aimed at giving a better idea of the money available to meet other expenses. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The UK has seen years of weak growth, although the economy expanded by 1.2% in the first six months of this year, according to official figures. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Most countries want economic growth because it usually means people spend more, extra jobs are created, more tax is paid to the government and workers get better pay rises.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">All this together, in theory, leaves people better off &#8211; but it takes time for the benefits to be felt, and it does not necessarily benefit everyone. According to PwC, &#8220;only a fraction&#8221; of a rise in GDP &#8211; which a measures economic growth &#8211; leads to increased spending power. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Researchers said while there was a clear North-South divide in the spending power of households, there were also such examples of spending power differences within areas deemed better off, such as London and the south east.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">For example, Richmond&#8217;s average annual disposable income was the highest in London at \u00a335,448 &#8211; almost double the \u00a318,384 recorded in neighbouring Hammersmith and Fulham.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The research shows just how differently prosperity is experienced across the UK, with stark variations not only between regions but on each other&#8217;s doorstep,&#8221; said Rachel Taylor, government and health industries leader at PwC.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/crerw510gdzo?at_medium=RSS&#038;at_campaign=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Almost half of people in Britain live in areas where economic growth does not translate into a better quality of life with a &#8220;stark&#8221; North-South divide in the spending power of households, a new report finds. Researchers at consultancy firm PwC said every region the north of England, midlands and Wales had a lower spending [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":82889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[56],"tags":[4317,352,834,1654,985],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82888"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82888"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82890,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82888\/revisions\/82890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}