REDDITCH MP Rachel Maclean has expressed her delight that figures released last week show that households in the UK have more disposable income than at any time previously.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) issued last week, in its Living Costs and Food Survey, show that the UK median disposable household income was £27,300 in the financial year ending 2017, up 2.3 per cent on the previous year.

The MP said the good news is that, compared with their pre-downturn levels, the incomes of the poorest households have risen nearly two thousand pounds, while incomes of the richest are only now slightly higher.

Overall, income inequality has fallen over the last decade.

“I believe that creating a country and an economy that works for everyone means incomes ought to rise for everyone," she said.

"I want to see people on lower incomes being able to earn more, and keep more of their money. What we are seeing in this Government is the gap between lower and higher income earners shrinking because of our progressive and fair taxation policy, where the rich pay proportionately more of their incomes in tax to fund vital public services, than the poorest do.

“Labour would have us believe that the gap between rich and poor is widening, but these figures expose these falsehoods.”

Between 2016 and 2017, the report also showed that both retired and non-retired households have seen increases in their median disposable incomes.