GENERAL DECLINE: UK LIVING STANDARDS OVER THE LAST FOUR YEARS

Autonomy General decline: UK living standards in the last four years 14 REAL WAGES DECLINE ACROSS UK PARLIAMENTARY CONSTITUENCIES (2019-2023) The heat map in Figure 2, below, shows the change in mean weekly real wages across the UK between 2019 and 2023, broken down into parliamentary constituencies (new boundaries). [...] Autonomy General decline: UK living standards in the last four years 19 UK PARLIAMENTARY CONSTITUENCIES WITH THE GREATEST CHANGES IN REAL WEEKLY MEAN WAGES We now move from the UK-wide changes captured in Figures 2 to 5, to focus on those constituencies which have fared the worst and the best since 2019 in terms of real mean weekly wages. [...] Autonomy General decline: UK living standards in the last four years 21 Again the weighting of each chart displays the overall UK picture: while only the top 3 constituencies have an increase of greater than 15%, all of the bottom 10 (and, in fact, all of the bottom 21 constituencies) saw decreases of greater than 15%. [...] The left of the Figure 8 chart shows a cluster of Labour constituencies within the lowest 2 deciles in particular, many of the higher deciles – especially 8, 9 and 10 – are dominated by the Conservative Party. [...] Autonomy General decline: UK living standards in the last four years 26 However, Figure 10, which plots the relative change in mean real weekly wages between 2019 and 2023, sees the lowest deciles (those with the greatest decline over the last 4 years) dominated by the Conservative Party.