![]() And this is particularly true for those households with a below median income.Ĭhild poverty rates in London are the highest of any English region or UK country, and this is expected to worsen in the coming years. In fact, the high cost of housing means the average Londoner is worse off than those elsewhere in the UK. Londoners do not have an easy time of it, despite projects like Crossrail. Perhaps this is not the most useful way of looking at things. And who exactly is Crossrail for? Much investment of this kind may be in London, but is it really for Londoners alone? Yet while London received the most investment per head, the south-east was the region that received the least. Much of this comes in the form of capital investment, often involving highly visible infrastructure projects that can generate resentment and envy outside of the capital. In 2016/17, Greater London received the most public spending per head of any English region. If London was declared an independent country tomorrow, the rest of the nation would soon be bankrupt.īut the capital also receives a lot in return. That money was then redistributed around the country, funding hospitals, schools and railways. Within the Wider South East, London’s surplus is particularly high: in 2016/17, the capital contributed £32.6bn more to the national purse than it took out. The Wider South East is the only part of the country that runs a “fiscal surplus” with the rest of the nation – it contributes more in taxation than it receives in public expenditure. London’s 9 million residents live in the beating heart of an economically connected Wider South East mega-region (Greater London plus the south-east and east of England regions) of 22 million. With just 13% of the national population, London is responsible for 23% of the UK economy. ![]() The first thing to note is that the capital’s economy is seriously strong. But does this perception reflect reality? This idea seems to be on the rise, and the Guardian has just published a series entitled London Versus. ![]() Today, the capital’s appetite for investment in its infrastructure is seen as insatiable, serving only to strengthen the city’s magnetism, dragging talented young people out of the regions and into its grasp. ![]()
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