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Home Business & Economics Economics

The UK has 9 out of the 10 poorest regions in northern Europe

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 […]

Jack Peat by Jack Peat
June 6, 2018
in Economics, News
The Working Class: Why Is No One Laughing?

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.

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And far from catching-up with the richer parts of the EU, the UK’s poor regions have fallen further behind.

According to Simon Tilford, deputy director of the Centre for European Reform, Britain’s problems are three-fold.

  • Poor skills among a sizeable chunk of the workforce
  • Weak infrastructure and a lack of affordable housing
  • And the centralisation of political and commercial power in London.

He says: “Unfortunately, Brexit risks aggravating most, if not all, of these problems. And Britain’s already startling regional imbalances are likely to worsen further, leaving much of the country’s population living in areas considerably poorer than the EU-15 average.

“The Conservatives will provide some fiscal stimulus to counter the weakening of growth caused by Brexit, but will not make the long-term investments in infrastructure and skills needed by the UK.

“They have few MPs in the poorer regions that would benefit most from such spending, while the resulting higher borrowing and/or taxation would be unpopular with their core vote in England’s wealthy South”.

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Jack Peat

Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE).He has contributed articles to The Sunday Telegraph, BBC News and writes for The Big Issue on a weekly basis.Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Comments 5

  1. Adam Williams says:
    1 year ago

    OR
    Instead of irritating these problems it more likely will solve them,

    Reply
  2. Anne Cunningham says:
    1 year ago

    The image is of Park Hill in Sheffield (I am 99% sure). This place is one of the great success stories of urban regeneration- check out Urban Splash’s work. You might want to change it so it doesn’t look like you’ve used any old concrete building north of Watford to stereotype inequality…

    Reply
  3. Stephen Simkins says:
    1 year ago

    I can’t believe this. is that picture even in UK ???

    Reply
  4. David T says:
    1 year ago

    It’s from here I think: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Park_Hill,_half-abandoned_council_housing_estate,_Sheffield,_England.jpg

    Reply
  5. Andrew Wake says:
    1 year ago

    It’s fake news and the photo used was lifted from Wikipedia. The flats in the photo are in Sheffield and have been regenerated.

    https://fullfact.org/economy/does-uk-have-poorest-regions-northern-europe/

    Reply

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