MAPPED: The UK’s richest and poorest places to live revealed | Politics | News
The Daily Express reveals Britain is being torn apart by a staggering £87,000 income gap between the richest and poorest neighbourhoods. Shocking new figures reveal how some communities are falling behind while others are thriving, with the gap between rich and poor growing at an alarming rate.
In the wealthiest areas, households enjoy an eye-watering disposable income of £107,600 per year. But in the poorest parts of the country, families can survive on just £20,800 a year; This is just enough to meet basic needs. Data shows that the income gap has exploded by a jaw-dropping 73% in just three years; this rate was £50,300 when the data was last published. Nowhere is this gap sharper than in Birmingham, where the country’s six poorest neighborhoods are clustered together in a shocking example of regional inequality.
Sparkhill North was revealed to be the poorest area in England and Wales; households earn an average disposable income of just £20,800 a year after tax. Sparkbrook South is slightly better off, with an average income of £21,548, while Small Heath Park (£21,666), Saltley East (£21,689), Washwood Heath (£21,787) and Bordesley Green North (£21,928) complete the embarrassing list of Britain’s six poorest areas.
All six are located in Birmingham, a thriving city that was once Britain’s industrial centre.
The devastating figures come from new data published by the Office for National Statistics, which tracks household disposable income in small areas of 2,000 to 6,000 households after tax, National Insurance and council tax. Some of the wealthiest areas in the country are within walking distance of some of the poorest areas in Britain’s major cities.
The posh riverside neighborhood of Leamouth, home to luxury skyscrapers between Canning Town and Canary Wharf in East London’s Tower Hamlets, has an average annual household income of £107,600. But it draws squarely on Poplar Central, where families struggle on just £35,000 a year, three times less than their wealthy neighbors just a few streets away.
The difference of £73,000 between these adjacent areas is the largest of any council in the country. There are similar cliffs all over the capital. In Southwark, there is a £63,300 gap between affluent Butler’s Wharf and struggling South Bermondsey East.
You can search to see how your local area compares using our interactive map. Just enter your zip code to see the numbers for your region.
The research reveals how London has become a tale of two cities, with almost half (45%) of all neighborhoods in the capital in the top 10% nationally for disposable income.
Meanwhile, the North and Midlands have struggled, with a staggering 23% of neighborhoods in the North West and West Midlands residing in the bottom 10% nationally.
In the North East, 21% of neighborhoods are in the bottom 10% and there are no areas in the region in the top 10% for income. In Wales, Yorkshire and the Humber, less than 1 per cent of neighborhoods are also in the top 10 per cent, painting a devastating picture of regional inequality.
Shocking inequalities exist even in individual council areas, where multi-million pound projects are located alongside the poorest communities in the country. There is an income gap of over £53,200 between Oxford’s richest borough, Oxford Central (£87,300 a year), and its poorest, Blackbird Leys (£34,100).
In Salford, wealthy Salford Quays residents have an income of £67,800, while in nearby Pendleton it is just £23,400, a difference of £44,400. Birmingham’s income gap stretches to £42,600; The average for the city center neighborhood is £63,400, while Sparkhill North’s is £20,800.
These figures reveal the harsh reality of modern Britain, where shiny new developments and thriving financial districts exist alongside forgotten communities struggling with closed shops, dwindling public services and vanishing opportunities.
The data also reveals a country increasingly divided between wealthy urban centres, particularly in London and the South East, and left-behind areas in the Midlands and the North where traditional industries have collapsed.
The figures come as UK households struggle with the cost of living, with those in the poorest areas bearing the brunt of increases in food, fuel and energy prices.
