ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies regional disparities in living standards, explores regional disparities in housing demand. It discusses housing market outcomes, analyses low demand in the North and Midlands. Among local authorities, regional disparities in 1998 were even more marked - with a major impact on local housing markets. Regional disparities in gross domestic product per capita are interrelated with regional disparities in housing demand and housing market outcomes, and are particularly associated with a surplus of housing in much of the North and Midlands, and dire shortages of affordable housing in London. Regional variations in unemployment are often cited as the principal attribute of the North-South divide. At a local authority level, North-South disparities in unemployment, activity rates and - to an extent - average gross weekly earnings are very much in evidence.
