West Midlands families have less cash in their pocket
Families in the Black Country have among the lowest amount of disposable income in the UK. Wolverhampton, Walsall and Sandwell are in the bottom 10 with £13,257, £12,613 and £12,100 a year per household respectively.
Westminster is top with £43,577. And in Walsall and Sandwell it has actually fallen by 1.7 per cent in a year. Staffordshire homes have an average of £16,684 of excess money to spend. National figures show disposable income in the Midlands and north is on average £2,300 per head lower than the rest of the country.
Researchers say the Government needs to 'correct the inbalances' that different parts of the country face.
Disposable income rose by just 0.38 per cent in Dudley from 2012 to 2013, but 3.88 per cent in Staffordshire and 1.5 per cent in Wolverhampton.
The data has come from a study designed to look at how the north and south compare – but it has shown the Midlands is trailing behind other regions. The Institute for Public Policy Research has used Government figures for the investigation.
Sandwell is third from bottom nationally, with Walsall two places higher and Wolverhampton seventh from last. Bottom of the pile nationally was Leicester with £11,739.
MPs in the Black Country say the figures are a cause for concern and show that some areas of England are being hit harder than others.
Warley MP John Spellar said Government cuts had targeted Sandwell and other parts of the Black Country, leading to job losses and difficulty attracting businesses.
He added: "Manufacturing took a hit from 1979 onwards and we are still feeling the effects of that.
"We already knew that on the scale of deprivation, Sandwell ranks pretty low, and it is outrageous the level of cuts that this area is expected to endure."
He said council efforts secure investment to the Black Country was 'the right way to go'. A map of the country shows the 20 per cent of poorest homes are in the north and dotted through the West Midlands and Wales, while the richest are all in the south east.
Luke Raikes, research fellow at IPPR North, said: "Correcting the inbalances in our nation's economy is about more than just stronger economic growth figures or faster journey times – we have to improve the quality of life and incomes of people."
He added: "If we increase household wealth to the regional average, then every household will be nearly £500 better off each year."
