Manchester Saw Steepest Fall in Living Standards Among Major English Cities From 2021 to 2023

Manchester experienced the steepest fall in living standards of any major English city between 2021 and 2023, GB News reported. Residents' purchasing power fell by 7 percent over the period, compared with an average decline of 4.7 percent across England.

Real disposable income per person in Manchester in 2023 stood lower than when Andy Burnham first took office as Greater Manchester mayor in 2017.

The city's average real disposable income per person reached £16,500 that year, 41 percent below London's figure of £27,900. Sheffield recorded the second-largest decline among major English cities, with real incomes falling 6.1 percent. Bristol posted the smallest drop at 4 percent, while London recorded a 5.1 percent decline.

Outside England, Cardiff saw real disposable incomes fall 9. Sophie Hale, research director at the Resolution Foundation, said Manchester's sharper decline reflected weaker productivity growth than other major cities and captured the period immediately after the Covid pandemic when the city may have experienced a greater unwinding of government support measures including the furlough scheme.

Manchester nevertheless recorded the strongest long-term income growth of any major British city, with real disposable income per person rising 40 percent between 1997 and 2023.

The Resolution Foundation concluded that Boris Johnson's levelling-up agenda launched in 2019 had failed to reduce regional income disparities that have remained largely unchanged over the past three decades. Ruth Curtice, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, said turning ambition on regional inequality into reality will require investment in transport, housing and wider economic development on a scale that no recent political leader has come close to meeting.