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Areas with high savings 'tend to have older residents'
30 June 2008
Areas of Britain with high populations of older residents appear to have bigger savings balances than those full of younger people, new figures reveal.
Research by Halifax Savings indicates that people living in north Norfolk have the highest balance of savings in proportion to earnings, while those in the City of London have the highest average balance (£14,267) followed by residents of South Buckinghamshire (£12,369) and Elmbridge in Surrey (£12,071).
Residents of north Norfolk have an average savings balance of £9,883, or 55 per cent of local average annual gross earnings, with many of those areas with the highest levels of savings in relation to earnings found to have "a relatively high proportion of older residents".
Just five areas of Britain have average savings balances of more than half of average local earnings and these include north Norfolk, the Isles of Scilly, Down in Northern Ireland, Christchurch in Dorset and Ceredigion in Wales. The smallest savings balances were found in West Lothian (£3,897), Glasgow City (£4,209) and Hackney (£4,209).
Popular retirement areas tend to have high levels of savings in relation to earnings because savers in the age group 75 and above have the highest average balances (£20,046) in Britain, compared with an average balance of £1,385 for 18-24 year olds.
A recent poll by Scottish Widows indicated that just 51 per cent of people in the UK who are saving for retirement are putting enough money away, up slightly from 49 per cent in 2007. One in three people surveyed stated that they cannot afford to put more aside for the future.
