The time it takes to earn enough to buy your Greggs sausage roll
The time it takes Wearside workers to earn enough to afford a Greggs sausage roll has been revealed by new research.
The humble pastry is the subject of a nationwide cost of living index showing how long is required to earn enough to buyoneindifferentpartsofthe country.
Website InvestingReviews. co.uk commissioned economist John Hawksworth to carry out a study of 100 cities and towns across Great Britain, comparing Greggs prices to the Office of National Statistics’ local median hourly pay estimates.
It found Lichfield in Staffordshire
is the place people must work the longest – four minutes and 54 seconds – to afford their favourite treat.
Sunderland clocks in at 88th. Mackems can expect to work four minutes and 32 seconds before digging in.
Unsurprisingly, the fastest-earned sausage rolls were mostly in the South East with London, Oxford, Slough, and Guildford in the top five.
Newcastle—wherethelate John Gregg opened his first shop in 1951 — managed only 30th place. Geordies have to work an estimated three minutes and 46 seconds to scrape together the necessary funds.
The Greggs Sausage Roll Index may seem like a joke but John Hawksworth said it exposedtheregionalinequalities that still exist despite the government’sflagshiplevelling-up
agenda:“Inparttheanalysisisa bit of fun, with the sausage roll standing in for the Big Mac as a
standardised product to compare purchasing power across different places,” he said.
"But it does also make the serious point that there are very large variations in income levels across our towns andcities.Theselocalearnings gapsaredrivenbyvariationsin productivityacrossplacesthat reflectdeep-seateddisparities in education, opportunity and infrastructure.
“Narrowing these income gaps remains one of the most important economic challenges facing this and future governments.”
Greggshaswarnedcustomerstheymayhavetoworkeven harder for their sausage roll in the future, with a raft of price hikesexpectedlaterintheyear.
InvestingReviews.co.uk CEO Simon Jones added: “Amidallthegovernment’stalk of levelling up, a great divide still exists across Great Britain today with Greggs customers in some parts typically having to work 65% longer than Londonerstoaffordasausageroll.”
The reality of Johnson's leadership is, the IMF have forecast that the United Kingdom will be second worst economic performer in the G20 next year after Russia.
All this “partygate” is just a distraction from the massive damage Boris Johnson and what I consider to be his incompetent party have done to this great country.
It's time to get rid of them, before they inflict even more damage.
Ged Taylor, Barnes.