A new map today lays bare the stark inequalities in the strength of Britain’s economy – revealing that five of the UK’s most productive areas all in London.
The Office for National Statistics has looked at the income and economic productivity of every local authority to work out their gross value added (GVA) scores.
The figures show the North East of England has the worst score in the UK with a negative growth of minus 1 per cent for 2016.
While booming London is driving the UK’s economy, with growth at 3 per cent – the highest in the country.
The capital also tops the poll when the ONS worked out how much each individual person contributes to the economy in terms of income and productivity.
Londoners on average contributed £46,482 last year – over twice as much as in Wales where the average was £19,140.
But while overall Wales lags behind the richest parts of England, its GVA score grew at a faster rate than any other country in the UK.
Last year it grew by 1.9 per cent – higher than the UK average which stood at 1.6 per cent, the ONS said.
While England grew at 1.6 per cent, Scotland at 1.2 per cent and Northern Ireland at 1.1. per cent.
And when statisticians drilled down to compare how every local authority ranked, London again dominated.
Five of the top five GVA ‘per head’ scores were in the capital, with Camden and the City of London – which contains the super wealthy Square Mile – coming first with an average of £318,673.
Westminster came in second place at £238,506, while Tower Hamlets came in third at £91,378.
In fourth place were the boroughs Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham at £68,675 per head, while Haringey and Islington were fifth at £46,880.
At the other end of the spectrum, no London borough was in the bottom five areas for GVA per head.
The poorest on this scale was the Isle of Anglesey in Wales on just £13,655, while the second lowest was the Gwent Valleys in South Wales and the third was Torbay in Devon at £14,888.
The ONS said they have combined assessments for the area’s production and income to come up with a score for the overall economic productivity.
He said: ‘Historically we have produced estimates of regional gross value added (GVA) using the income approach (as National Statistics) and the production approach (as Experimental Statistics).
‘In this publication, we have taken the strengths from both approaches and used them to produce a new balanced measure of regional GVA.
‘This will give users a single measure of economic activity within a region, therefore avoiding any confusion from having two different estimates of the same thing.’
Theresa May’s government has drawn up an industrial strategy in a bid to address the UK’s uneven economic performance.
Ministers hope that by devolving more powers to the regions and that by pumping money into the Northern Powerhouse growth can spread to other areas of the UK.
Five of the top five GVA ‘per head’ scores were in the capital, with Camden and the City of London – which contains the super wealthy Square Mile – coming first with an average of £318,673