Women earn less in affluent areas

The pay gap between men and women is at its greatest in the most affluent areas of the country, official data shows.

High-earning areas of the country, such as the south-east and London, have a larger gap than lower-earning areas such as Northern Ireland, the new edition of Regional Trends by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) finds.

Londoners are paid the most in absolute terms, at £575 a week for men and £483 a week for women, while the pay gap was greatest in the south-east with men earning £128 more than women (£521 a week compared with £393).

This gap is at its lowest in Northern Ireland, where men earn an average of just £54 a week more (£410 compared with £356). But while the province's men are the worst paid in the UK, women workers in the north-east are paid the least at £328 a week.

London also has the highest levels of weekly income at an average of £296 per person. That said, London also has the highest proportion of both the richest and poorest people in the UK, after housing costs are taken into account.

But while income is highest London and the south-east, so is spending.

Households in the south-east spend an average of £204 a week, with Londoners spending just £10 a week under this.

Additionally, housing costs in London are higher than anywhere else in the country, making the capital the only region where families spend more on housing than on recreation and culture.

London and the south-east are also the only regions of the UK where average house prices are over £200,000, according to the ONS report.