A new report from the Resolution Foundation finds that Britain's regional divide in household income has barely narrowed in nearly 30 years, despite repeated pledges by successive governments to close the gap. The findings matter because they underline the scale of the challenge facing prime minister-in-waiting Andy Burnham, who has made rebalancing prosperity across the country a central part of his political agenda.

Between 1997 and 2023, gross household disposable income per person in London (£27,900) remained three-fifths higher than in Northern Ireland (£17,300), while the richest local area, Kensington and Chelsea (£60,584), stayed four and a half times richer than the poorest, Leicester (£13,398). More than half of the poorest local authorities in 1997 were still among the poorest in 2023, and 82% of the richest stayed at the top. The report noted some progress in employment and productivity, citing Manchester's 40% real-terms income growth, but stressed that closing the divide would need investment on a scale no recent leader has matched — contrasting the UK's £4bn "levelling-up" spend in 2022 with Germany's £70bn a year for reunification.