Household finances show signs of life with Londoners’ savings racing ahead
HUNDREDS of thousands of households are coping better with paying bills and debts than they were late last year, Legal and General’s MoneyMood survey showed yesterday.
The number struggling with financial commitments has fallen by 244,000 since the final quarter of 2011, to 1.89m.
Of those, 189,000 are in London – down 81,000 on the quarter.
The average household nationwide that is short of cash needs an extra £96 per month to get by, but those in London are £261 short.
Households in Scotland and East Anglia with a shortfall have the lowest on average, at just £25 per month.
At the other end of the spectrum, households that manage to save money put away an average of £93 each month – but London’s savers manage £159.
The biggest savers are in the East Midlands, at £177 per month.
“There is a clear north/south divide with the south saving between 25 per cent and 90 per cent more than the national average and double the level of savings achieved by those in the northern regions,” the report said.