Only 8% feel better off, mostly in South East

January 24, 2014, 5:12 PM GMT+0

YouGov's HEAT tracker suggests that only 8% of Britons feel their financial situation is improving - and those few are disproportionately in London and the South East

The government today released figures which suggest that over the past year the bottom 90% of earners have become better off relative to inflation. “Last year take-home pay grew faster than inflation for every group of earners except the top 10 per cent”, wrote Matthew Hancock in the Times.

Whether or not this is true of take-home pay, YouGov's HEAT tracker (based on around 20,000 surveys per quarter) suggests that the vast majority of people do not feel it to be true of their overall household situation.

The picture has been gradually improving, but in the last quarter of 2013 only 8% felt their household finances were getting better; 67% said there had been no change, and fullly 25% said they were getting worse.

Mr Hancock also suggested that, contrary to expectations, "take-home pay has grown fastest in the North and Midlands and is weakest in London and the South East.”

Again, YouGov's HEAT tracker paints a very different picture. Respondents in London and the South East are considerably more likely to expect their finances to get better over the next 12 months.

Those from the North and Midlands are among the least likely to expect their finances to improve in the coming year.

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