Treasury Committee launches inquiry into regional inequality
The Treasury Select Committee (TSC) has today launched a new inquiry into economic imbalances between the regions of the UK, it said.
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The Committee raised the prospect of the government producing economic forecasts for each region of the country. Currently the official data body just produces UK-wide reports.
Nicky Morgan, the former education secretary who chairs the TSC, said it had become “abundantly clear” that there were “disparities and differences” between the areas the MPs on the Committee represented.
The launch comes the day after the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank showed that median household income stagnated in 2017-18 as the falling pound pushed up inflation, eroding people’s wages.
The IFS said it will be releasing a study into living standards, poverty and inequality in the UK in 2019 on Wednesday. It currently has a major investigation into inequality underway.
Ministers on the Committee, which scrutinises the Treasury department, said there will be two strands to its inquiry.
It will examine in detail the regional imbalances in economic growth which currently exist in Britain. The inquiry will also establish what regional data is currently available and how it could be used more effectively.
Morgan said: “Whether it be a divide between north and south, towns and cities, or urban and rural, people experience the chasm which exists between various parts of the UK through their day to day lives.”
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“For example, differences not just in economic growth and income, but also in health and educational outcomes and the quality of infrastructure,” she said.