Spending power in richest areas is £52,000 a head

RESIDENTS in Britain’s wealthiest boroughs have spending power more than four times higher than those of the poorest cities.

Data showed that in the most expensive parts of West London, each individual has an average disposable income, after taxes and benefits, of well over £50,000.

However in the country’s least well- off city, Nottingham, an average person has less than £13,000 a year.

The breakdown of gross disposable household income across the UK was calculated by the Office for National Statistics. It said that the boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea, and Hammersmith and Fulham, where each person had £52,298 to spend or save in 2015, have incomes of more than two and a half times the national average.

The spending calculations show the amounts that every individual has to spend or save after they have paid tax or collected state benefits, but before paying bills.

The ONS said the figures ‘reflect the material welfare’ of homes in each area. The analysis, which was released a day after the ONS showed that Londoners pay more than £3,000 each a year to subsidise public spending elsewhere in the country, showed that an average individual in London paid £5,366 in tax in 2015.

Londoners also received the least of any region in benefits – £4,510 each.

By contrast in the South West, which has a large population of retired people, the average person gets £5,951 in state benefits.

The ONS calculations showed that English disposable income was £19,447 a head. Only two regions had individual spending power of over £20,000: London and the South East. Londoners typically had £25,293 to spend in 2015, residents of the South East £21,808. The East of England and the South West also had individual spending levels over the UK average, at £19,796 and £19,128.

Scots had £18,315 each to spend; residents of Wales £16,341; and people in Northern Ireland £15,913. Northern Ireland and the North East, at £16,197, were the regions with the lowest individual spending levels.

The ONS said that the ten richest areas were all in London, and the ten poorest in the North and the Midlands.