UK workers’ living standards slump 28 % in four years

The living standards of workers in the UK has fallen by up to 28 per cent over the past four years, as a result of the recession and the ''stalled'' economic recovery.

A new study commissioned by the GMB union, showed a 5.9-per cent average fall when wage increases were compared to inflation, with the highest figure of 28.6 per cent reported in parts of London, followed by 22.7 per cent in Herefordshire in the West Midlands, 20.7 per cent in the counties of Bedfordshire and 20.5 per cent in Nottingham.

The biggest regional fall was seen in the North West at 9.1 per cent followed by the South West (8 per cent), West Midlands (7.6 per cent), east of London (7.3 per cent) and Yorkshire and Humberside (7.1 per cent).

The union said the smallest fall in living standards between April 2007 and November this year was 2.3 per cent in the North East, said the union.

According to GMB general secretary Paul Kenny, the figures showed that the government's strategy for an economic recovery was in tatters as living standards in the UK dropped by 5.9 per cent.

He said, full-time workers in all regions in the UK had seen the value of their earnings fall when they had a job.

He added things had got a lot worse in the past year as the recovery under way at the time of the election stalled and the country was mired in a new recession.

He said squeezing wages, pay freezes and cutting jobs would not restart the economy and using the IMF measures, his cuts would reduce real private consumption by 4 per cent and GDP by 3.4 per cent over the next few years.