Poorest places to live: The 9 UK cities with the lowest disposable income, as wages 'stagnate'

The country’s biggest towns and cities have been ranked according to the average annual disposable household income per person.

The figures are included in the Cities Outlook 2026 report, by the independent Centre for Cities, which it describes as an annual health check on local economies up and down the UK.

The report compares the UK’s 63 biggest towns and cities across a range of metrics, from skills and productivity to housing and living standards.

It states: “In the aftermath of the financial crisis, in many cities and towns incomes have stagnated, deprivation has persisted, and living standards have become disconnected from economic growth.

“But a handful of cities – from different regions and starting points – have bucked these trends and achieved ‘greater prosperity’, managing to translate expanding local economies into rising local incomes.”

Below are the nine towns and cities with the lowest average gross disposable household income per person, according to the report. The figures are for 2023, the latest date available.

Disposable household income is the amount people have available to save or spend after taxes and benefits are taken into account, but before essential costs like mortgage/rent payments, food and energy bills.

Although people living in these towns and cities have the UK’s lowest spending power, the figures do show that things are improving faster in some areas than others.

In Blackburn, for example, the annual disposable income per person is £14,345, but this grew on average by 1.2% each year between 2013 and 2023, suggesting it is on the right path to greater prosperity.

In Dundee, meanwhile, the disposable income is slightly higher, at £15,909, but it fell by 0.3% per year over the same period, suggesting it risks falling further behind other towns and cities.