Northern Ireland living standards 'stagnant for 20 years' and set to 'go backwards' following Jeremy Hunt budget, economist warns

Living standards in Northern Ireland have stagnated for around 20 years and are now set to worsen as a result of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's budget, a leading economist has said.
By Niall Deeney
Published 18th Nov 2022, 15:23 BST
Updated 18th Nov 2022, 16:10 BST
Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt gives a television interview the morning after his autumn statement, outside the BBC studios in central London.Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt gives a television interview the morning after his autumn statement, outside the BBC studios in central London.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt gives a television interview the morning after his autumn statement, outside the BBC studios in central London.

Mr Hunt's budget statement on Thursday contained a series of tax increases and spending cuts, and was accompanied by a warning from the Office for Budget Responsibility that the UK is now officially in a recession.

Dr Lisa Wilson, a senior economist with the trade union backed Nevin Economic Research Institute said workers and households "are going to have to bear the brunt of this".

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Speaking to the News Letter, she said a recent analysis of data produced by the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings – a set of government statistics published each year which showed that in April 2022 the average salary in Northern Ireland stands at £30,000 – showed that over a 20-year period living standards had failed to improve.

"There was no change, in real terms, in earnings," she said. “That means people who have been working for 20 years without improvement in their living standards.

"You would expect that, over a generation, in the kind of economy in Northern Ireland and the UK, there would be some improvement in living standards but, instead, there has been stagnation."

Asked if the economic policies set out in Jeremy Hunt's budget would have a greater or lesser impact in Northern Ireland compared with other UK regions, she said: "In the broad sense of the whole cost-of-living crisis, there is reason to think it is being felt and will be felt more severely in Northern Ireland. Inflationary increases are more uniform, but our incomes are not.”

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She added: “In terms of the impact of the budget and public spending, it is actually quite difficult to tell until we see the Barnett consequentials.”

Returning to living standards, Dr Wilson said: “The key thing that I would like to get across, and it's something that has been made worse by the budget, is that in Northern Ireland you could have been working for decades and not gotten any further in terms of improving your living standards. As a result of the budget, what that means is that over the next five-to-eight years you are now going backwards.”

Related topics:Jeremy HuntNorthern Ireland