The gap between disposable household incomes in London and the rest of the UK has reached a record, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show.
Overall in 2021, gross disposable household income (GDHI) in the UK grew by 3.6 per cent when compared with 2020, the ONS said.
Total GDHI stood at £1.5 trillion in 2021, of which 86.4 per cent was in England, 7.4 per cent in Scotland, 3.9 per cent in Wales, and 2.3 per cent in Northern Ireland.
The ONS calculates GDHI as the amount of money that all the individuals in a household have available for spending or saving after they have paid tax or received any direct benefits.
London had the highest GDHI per head where, on average, each person had £31,094 available to spend or save. That compared to a UK average of £21,679. Northern Ireland had the lowest GDHI per head by region at £17,636.
The London figure is 43 per cent above the national average, the highest it's been since the ONS started ONS began tracking the data 25 years ago.
Within London in 2021, Westminster had the highest GDHI per head at £67,389, more than three times the UK average. Meanwhile, Leicester had the lowest GDHI per head at £14,605.
Rhetoric and reality
Experts said it brings into focus the performance of the government's 'levelling-up' plans, first promised by the Conservative party before the 2019 election which saw Boris Johnson become Prime Minister.
“London’s economy recovered fastest from the pandemic, and this relative success looks to be feeding through into residents’ living standards," said Lindsay Judge, research director at the Resolution Foundation.
"The big picture here is that Britain is not converting its levelling up rhetoric into reality.
"To address this we need to focus on our major cities outside London, whose economic under-performance is holding back national prosperity.”
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Where to donate in the UAE
You can donate to several registered charities through a “donation catalogue”. The use of the donation is quite specific, such as buying a fan for a poor family in Niger for Dh130.
The General Authority of Islamic Affairs & Endowments
The site has an e-donation service accepting debit card, credit card or e-Dirham, an electronic payment tool developed by the Ministry of Finance and First Abu Dhabi Bank.
You can donate online or order Smiles n’ Stuff products handcrafted by Al Noor students. The centre publishes a wish list of extras needed, starting at Dh500.
Beit Al Khair Society has the motto “From – and to – the UAE,” with donations going towards the neediest in the country. Its website has a list of physical donation sites, but people can also contribute money by SMS, bank transfer and through the hotline 800-22554.
Dar Al Ber Society, which has charity projects in 39 countries, accept cash payments, money transfers or SMS donations. Its donation hotline is 800-79.
Dubai Cares provides several options for individuals and companies to donate, including online, through banks, at retail outlets, via phone and by purchasing Dubai Cares branded merchandise. It is currently running a campaign called Bookings 2030, which allows people to help change the future of six underprivileged children and young people.
Those who travel on Emirates have undoubtedly seen the little donation envelopes in the seat pockets. But the foundation also accepts donations online and in the form of Skywards Miles. Donated miles are used to sponsor travel for doctors, surgeons, engineers and other professionals volunteering on humanitarian missions around the world.
On the Emirates Red Crescent website you can choose between 35 different purposes for your donation, such as providing food for fasters, supporting debtors and contributing to a refugee women fund. It also has a list of bank accounts for each donation type.
Gulf for Good raises funds for partner charity projects through challenges, like climbing Kilimanjaro and cycling through Thailand. This year’s projects are in partnership with Street Child Nepal, Larchfield Kids, the Foundation for African Empowerment and SOS Children's Villages. Since 2001, the organisation has raised more than $3.5 million (Dh12.8m) in support of over 50 children’s charities.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum launched the Noor Dubai Foundation a decade ago with the aim of eliminating all forms of preventable blindness globally. You can donate Dh50 to support mobile eye camps by texting the word “Noor” to 4565 (Etisalat) or 4849 (du).
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