Wealth split is developing between the East and West

ENGLAND is developing an East-west wealth divide which could become as pronounced as the North-south split, analysis suggests.

Official data show that across the Midlands and the North, economic growth in the West has been twice as fast as that of the East since the financial crisis. This is in contrast to the years before when economies of the East and West grew at similar speeds.

The accelerating economy of the West is the result of higher productivity from people working longer hours, analysis of Office for National Statistics data by the Financial Times suggests.

The total number of hours worked in the West was 10 per cent higher in 2016 than in 2009, compared with growth of just 7 per cent in the East, it found. Meanwhile the number of people in work has grown at the same rate on both sides and was up by 8 per cent from 2009 to 2017.

In the seven years between 2009 and 2016, economic output per head in real terms rose by 9.2 per cent combined in the West Midlands and the North West, but only by 4.6 per cent in the East Midlands, Yorkshire and the North East. This resulted in the £1,000 gap in output per head between the east and west at the end of the Nineties doubling to £2,000 in 2016.

Meanwhile property prices in the North West are projected to grow the fastest over the next five years according to Savills, the estate agent, which puts it down to a particularly robust economic outlook and strong employment growth. Prices in the region are projected to grow by 18 per cent.