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The wealthy Londoners who have 360% more spare cash than the worst-off area of the UK

Carlyle Square in Kensington and Chelsea, London, one of the most expensive streets in the UK. (PA)
Carlyle Square in Kensington and Chelsea, London, one of the most expensive streets in the UK. (PA)

Residents of Kensington and Chelsea have 360% more disposable income than people in Nottingham, which has the lowest in the UK, new research suggests.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) reported on Thursday that the average resident of the combined areas of Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham had the highest amount of yearly disposable income in the UK at around £62,000.

This was more than four times the average resident of Nottingham, who had just over £13,000 worth of disposable income – the lowest in the UK.

A row of boarded up shops in Nottingham City Centre during England's third national lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus. Picture date: Friday February 19, 2021.
Nottingham residents has the lowest amount of disposable income in the UK. (PA)

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Kensington and Chelsea is home to some of the wealthiest people in the UK.

New research from property company Zoopla found the value of homes in the City of Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea (£306 billion) – covering an area of just 13 square miles – is roughly the same as for the whole of Wales (£308 billion).

The ONS used a measure called Gross disposable household income (GDHI), which is the amount of money that all of the individuals in the household sector have available for spending or saving after they have paid direct and indirect taxes and received any direct benefits.

The most recent data covers 2019 and so does not factor in any impact the pandemic may have had on disposable income.

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The ONS found London had by far the highest disposable income out of any region of the UK at just over £30,000, compared to second-place South East England where people had just under £25,000 worth of spare income.

The poorest area of the UK was the North East, which had just over £17,000 worth of disposable income per person per year.

The ONS are an average of an area, and so do not convey the vast amount of wealth inequality found in the capital.

Kensington and Chelsea is only a few miles away from fairly poor Barking and Dagenham, which had one of the lowest rates of disposable income in the country at £18,000.

Pigeons in an empty Nottingham city centre. More than three quarters of England's population is being ordered to stay at home to stop the spread of coronavirus.
Nottingham city centre. (PA)

The capital contained all of the richest areas of the country with the top five being Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham, Westminster, Camden and the City of London, Wandsworth and Hounslow and Richmond upon Thames.

The five areas of the country with the least disposable income were Kingston upon Hull, Blackburn and Darwen, Sandwell, Leicester and Nottingham.

London also saw the largest growth in disposable income compared to 2018, with a 3.4% rise compared to Wales, which had the smallest with 1.1%.

The figures reveal the disparities of wealth across the nation that the prime minister has pledged to tackle.

Boris Johnson has championed 'levelling up' as his main policy drive with the aim of boosting jobs, productivity and incomes in many of the country's most impoverished areas.

So far very little policy around levelling up has been announced – which has been criticised by the Labour Party.

The government has said the unprecedented pandemic has delayed their plans and recently appointed Michael Gove to take charge of to the newly named Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.