Under Tory Rule, Middlesbrough Residents Were £13,200 Poorer in a Decade

Residents of Middlesbrough are now facing an average salary reduction of nearly £13,200 since the Tories came into power ten years ago, according to new analysis from the Centre for Cities. According to the report, this drop is the result of a national trend that has been marked since 2010 by economic stagnation.

According to the report, major UK towns and cities have not grown much over the past ten years, and since David Cameron became prime minister in 2010 and began a 14-year tenure of Conservative administration, the economy has remained stagnant.

Addressing this economic impasse will be a major task for the next prime minister, according to Centre for Cities, as the general election puts development and equality at the top of the political agenda. The study draws attention to a widespread financial crisis that has an impact on former industrial towns, innovation clusters, and both northern and southern regions.

The UK’s job boom, which began in 2010, is blamed for the income gap since productivity growth has not kept pace. For example, productivity in Middlesbrough increased by 0.2% on a yearly average from 2010 and 2022, despite a 1% rise in employment.

The problem has been made worse by housing affordability, since the average Middlesbrough home is currently six times more expensive than the average household income. Disposable incomes have been negatively impacted by the worsening housing affordability across the country, but Middlesbrough was one of the few locations where this trend did not hold. However, the combined effects of these changes have led to a notable rise in the rate of poverty in the UK.

Specifically, since 2014, the percentage of children living in relative poverty has increased in nearly every city. In Middlesbrough, for example, the percentage has increased significantly from less than 19% in 2014 to 29% now, impacting an extra 9,942 children.

The CEO of Centre for Cities, Andrew Carter, underlined the necessity of a fundamentally new strategy to promote growth across the country. Carter said, “To get growth in every place, the next Government needs to act at a radically different pace and scale, and mark the beginning of a multi-decade policy programme.”

The paper demands that the British economy be acknowledged as an urban economy and makes several recommendations, including changing the planning system, giving cities more authority and financial flexibility, and acting decisively to implement the levelling up rhetoric.

“We are committed to levelling-up every corner of the UK,” a government official responded, highlighting investments in devolution accords, gigabit broadband, and community revitalization. The representative claimed that the UK economy had outperformed numerous other European economies and ascribed economic issues to global shocks, such as Covid and geopolitical events.

The report’s conclusion highlights the need for a practical strategy to expand the economy and calls on the government to acknowledge that the British economy is mostly urban and to enact changes appropriately.