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A new study gives more evidence that the Scots and Welsh are subsidy junkies.

Workers in London and elsewhere in Southern England are worth double the price than those in the poorest parts of the UK, such as areas in Northern England, Wales and Scotland.

Londoners and people in the South East of England are much more productive than workers in the rest of England, Scotland and Wales, and pay more taxes than the Scots, Welsh and people in other parts of England.

The value of workers in different parts of the country has been measured by the ONS as 'gross value added' - a figure that includes an employee's pay, the profit they generate for their employer, and the amount of tax they pay.

It found that in London a worker is worth £28,959, and in the South East of England, the next most productive region, £20,316.

By comparison, a worker in Wales is worth £14,396 and in Scotland £17,789.

London workers are worth 'twice as much' to the country

By STEVE DOUGHTY
8th May 2008
Daily Mail

Workers in London are worth double the price of those in the poorest parts of the country, a new official analysis showed today.

It showed the high value and hard effort of workers and commuters in the capital means they each produce nearly £29,000 worth of goods, services and tax a year.

That compares with less than £15,000 worth of return from a worker in Wales, just over £15,000 from an employee in the North East, and £16,000 from a worker in Yorkshire.

The figures underline the growing gap in wealth and productivity between London and the high-employment, highly paid south of the country, and northern regions where a growing proportion of the economy is run by the state.

London workers are worth double the price of those in the poorest parts of the country

But they also show that workers in the south of the country pay more taxes and keep less of their earnings than those elsewhere.

People in the South East have on average less than £15,000 a year to spend after taxes have been paid - while in Wales in a typical home each adult has almost £12,000 to spend.

The breakdown of productive value and actual spending power was published in Regional Trends, the annual comparison of the regions published by the Government's Office for National Statistics.

It comes in the wake of growing evidence that the wealthy south is paying high taxes to support the rest of the country with state jobs and benefits.

Workers in the South of England pay more taxes and keep less of their earnings than those in Northern England, Scotland and Wales

Economists have demonstrated that in some parts of the north more than half the economy is dependent on the state, while alongside higher income taxes southerners also pay much higher council tax bills than people in the north.

The value of workers in different parts of the country has been measured by the ONS as 'gross value added' - a figure that includes an employee's pay, the profit they generate for their employer, and the amount of tax they pay.

It found that in London a worker is worth £28,959, and in the South East, the next most productive region, £20,316.

The London figure is based on people who work in London, not those who live there. This means that it includes commuters from towns and suburbs outside London.

By comparison, a worker in Wales is worth £14,396; in the North East £15,177; and in Scotland £17,789.

The national average value of a worker is £19,063.

When household incomes are measured, however, the gap between south and north narrows.

In an average home in London each adult has £15,885 to spend after tax.

In the South East average home incomes - which include the take-home pay of many of those who commute to work in London and whose productivity is recorded under the London figures - amount to £14,941 for each adult.

In Wales an average income after tax is £11,851 a head. In the North East it is £11,351 a head.

ONS regional analyst Paul Vickers said: 'The South East and London dominate the gross value added charts.

"London's domination is such that it shows a productivity level nearly 50 per cent higher than the South East.

"The figures show there might be a slight widening of the north/south divide at the moment."

A worker in London produced 155 per cent of the national average value of an employee. A Welsh worker is worth 77 per cent of the national average, and worker in the North East 81 per cent.

Earlier this year a report from a City think tank found that five regions of Britain now depend more on public spending than on their own earnings.

Douglas McWilliams of the Centre for Economic and Business Research said of the think tank findings: "It is partly a chicken and egg situation - public spending in these regions is high because they are doing less well economically, but on the other hand a high public spending share can make a revival of the private sector difficult to achieve.

"The latest data suggests that this is getting worse."

dailymail.co.u

Lewis · No Longer a Wean Joined: 21 Feb 2008 Posts: 81

That's probably because Thatcher destoryed all of our industry and put all of the industry in London.
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Hammish Independence

Dave Coull · Independentista Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 928

London is by far the most subsidized part of the UK. The reason that workers in London earn more is because of the subsidies from the rest of the UK. The reason many Londoners pay more in taxes is because their highly-subsidised salaries put them into higher tax brackets, but only because they are subsidized. In reality, all that is happening when a Londoner pays tax is that one small part of the subsidy he receives is being paid back.

Aberdeen has always had fishing, and nowadays it also has oil. Glasgow exists because of building ships, sewing machines, etc. Birmingham makes bicycles, cars, etc. Sheffield makes cutlery and fine steel. Leicester makes shoes. But what is London for? Answer, it is for being the centre of government. That is ALL it is for. It is a great swollen pus-filled lump of a place with no reason for existing other than government. It was already too big, and a drain on the rest of the country, when it was just the capital of England. Then it became the capital of the United Kingdom, too. Then it became the capital of the British Empire. And although the Empire is gone, it remained a hugely important financial capital, the centre of the Sterling Area. Nowadays, it is ranked along with Tokyo and New York as one of just three "world cities" which drain the rest of the world's finances. But it doesn't actually DO anything. People in London either work for the government; or they work for bodies supposedly independent of the government, like the BBC; or they work in the offices of company headquarters which are there because the Government is there; or they work for Banks which are there because the government is there; or they work for public relations firms which are there because the government is there; or they work for global capitalist outfits which are there because the government and all these other things connected with government are there; or they work for service industries which are there to service the people who work for the government and the people who are there because the government is there; or they work for service industries which are there to service the people who work for service industries which are there to service the people who work for the government and the people who are there because the government is there; and so on.............I lived in London for twelve years, working as a bricklayer. Well, you might think, a building worker, that's quite an honourable trade. But did I ever, in that twelve years, actually work on building ANYTHING that would have needed building if the government had not been in London? Probably not. Take away government and bureacracy and global capitalist headquarters and there is no reason for London. That is what the rest of the UK pays taxes for. To subsidize the very existence of London.