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More of Britain's economy to be dominated by London by 2022: TUC

Xinhua, April 28, 2017 Adjust font size:

London and the Southeast will account for about 40 percent of the British economy by 2022 if current trends continue, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) said in an analysis Friday.

The TUC report was published to coincide with the release by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) of official GDP figures for the first quarter of 2017.

The ONS said the British economy grew by just 0.3 percent at the start of the year, the slowest growth rate since the first three months of 2016.

The TUC analysis projects how the regions of Britain will grow over the course of the next parliament if existing trends continue.

"It is part of a series of TUC election warnings, which show what the British economy will look like in 2022 if current trends continue unchecked," said a TUC spokesman.

The report says that by 2022, London and the Southeast will account for 40 percent, or two fifths of British economy, a rise of 2.5 percentage points from 2015. In 1997 London and the Southeast accounted for a third of the British economy.

"If current patterns continue, the most significant falls in the share of the economy over the next parliament will be in Yorkshire (dropping 0.5 percentage points to just 6.1 percent), the Northwest (down 0.4 percentage points to 9 percent) and Scotland (falling 0.4 percentage points to 7.2 percent), the analysis shows.

The TUC says a comprehensive industrial strategy is essential for rebalancing of the economy, and for bringing strong growth and more jobs to all parts of Britain.

TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady said: "This analysis shows that, with London and the Southeast dominating economic growth, too many people are missing out on the chance of a decent job just because of where they live."

"Britain needs great jobs, and all the political parties must explain in their (general election) manifestos how they will deliver growth in every corner of the country, not just the capital," said O'Grady.

The TUC has called on the incoming government to invest more in infrastructure, to enable Britain to compete with other advanced economies.

It wants a public procurement policy to improve jobs and pay, and a green economy, by setting a target of 50 percent of Britain's energy coming from renewables by 2030. Enditem