Pay May Reflect Regional Living Costs ; BUSINESS ANALYSIS Londoners Find It Nearly a Fifth More Expensive to Buy Goods and Services, Says ONS

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IT WON'T come as a surprise to any Londoner who has ever needed a plumber, but the cost of living in the capital is up to a fifth higher than in the provinces. Ground-breaking research by the Government's Office for National Statistics confirmed that, as with growth, house prices and employment, there is a deep North-South divide in inflation rates.

A Londoner has to pay almost 8 per cent more than the average Briton for the same basket of goods and services, while a Geordie gets away with a 10 per cent smaller budget - a gulf of 18 percentage points.

A shining example is the notorious case of six City of London investment bankers who racked up pounds 44,000 on …