Halifax’s customers in southern England are outsaving those in northern regions by almost 13%, according to its latest research.
Customers in southern England have an average balance of £8,734 compared to £7,759 in northern areas of the UK.
There is a wide variation in average balances between regions the biggest savers are in East Anglia with an average balance of £9,172 the lowest average balances are in Scotland (£7,332) – a difference of 25%. The average for the UK is £7,7882.
At a local level, the highest average balances are held by residents in South Buckinghamshire (£13,500) followed by Kensington and Chelsea (£13,366) and Mole Valley (£13,002). 18 of the top 20 savings areas are in southern England. The two exceptions are Derbyshire Dales (£11,410) and Hambleton (£11,316).
The highest average balance in Scotland is in Aberdeen (£10,640). In Wales it is in Powys (£9,675) and in Northern Ireland in Coleraine (£9,148).
The nation’s lowest savers are in North Lanarkshire with an average savings balance of £3,579 over 50% below the UK average, and almost 75% below the average in South Buckinghamshire.
Whilst five of the 10 lowest savings areas are in the capital – including Hackney (£4,256), Newham (£4,624) and Lewisham (£5,141) – the other areas are all outside the south. These include West Dunbartonshire (£4,614), Glasgow (£4,885), Midlothian (£4,986) and Manchester (£4,992).
The majority of areas with a savings balance below the UK average of £7,788 are outside southern England.
Nationally women (£7,981) just edge men (£7,657) with slightly higher savings balances, a difference of just 4%. Regionally the biggest differential is in the South East (6%) and East Anglia (5%) where women have a higher average savings balance than men. The only regions where men outsave women are Scotland (14%) and the North (1%).
There are, however, some marked differences within local areas. For example, in Waverley in Surrey average female balances are 28% higher than those held by men (£12,385 compared to £9,709). Waverley is followed by Adur, where the difference is 24% (£8,271 compared to £6,655) and Oadby and Wigston 22% (£8,941 compared to £7,336).
There are, however, several areas where men have substantially higher average balances than women, such as in East Lothian where the difference is 49% (£10,433 compared to £6,981) followed by Inverclyde (38%, £10,630 compared to £7,678) and Omagh (32%, £9,454 compared to £7,147).
Female savers in the UK have an average savings balance equivalent to 40% of their gross annual earnings – 17% more than male savers who have an average balance of 23% of their earnings.
Women save a bigger proportion of their earnings than men across all regions in the UK. The research shows that women have a savings balance equivalent to almost half (48%) of their earnings in the South West closely followed by Yorkshire and the Humber, East Midlands and East Anglia (all 47%). Savings by men are highest in proportion to earnings in Northern Ireland (31%). The lowest levels of savings relative to earnings are in London for both women and men (31% and 18% respectively).
Savers in Hambleton in North Yorkshire have the biggest savings balances relative to earnings. The average savings balance of £11,316 is equivalent to 58% of average earnings in the area. Savers in five other local authority districts (LADs) have average balances equivalent to at least half their earnings Eden in Cumbria (54%), Christchurch in Dorset (52%), North Norfolk (51%), Waveney in Suffolk (50%) and West Devon (50%). These are all popular retirement areas, which serves to boost the average level of savings amongst inhabitants.
In contrast, savers in Islington have an average balance of £7,133 equivalent to just 12% of average local earnings – the lowest in the survey. Nine of the 10 LADs with the smallest levels of savings to earnings are in London the exception is North Lanarkshire in Scotland (16%).
There are two factors that are likely to be boosting women’s savings: firstly, tax benefits higher tax rate paying husbands transferring savings into their wives’ names to reduce the amount they pay in tax and secondly, elderly single females who are left with the savings when their husbands die.
Martin Ellis, economist at Halifax, said: “Two key themes emerge from the Halifax savings survey. Firstly
