Full list of UK cities where your money goes furthest

New research reveals a wide gap across the UK in terms of how much workers are able to get out of their salaries.

People are generally earning more and spending less on bills than they were lsat year, according to 10,000 people surveyed by MoneySuperMarket’s Household Money Index.

But the improvement in how much spare cash people have is not being felt equally around the country.

The research calculated the ratio of income to spending on things like bills, tax and rent or mortgage payments in 17 different cities.

Top of the rankings came Southampton, where people only spent 60% of their income on fixed outgoings over the past year.

The national average is 69%, which means that a typical Sotonian on an average salary (£35,000 per year) has around £3,150 more in annual spending money than the average Brit.

Bottom of the rankings is Liverpool, where people spent three-quarters (75%) of their earnings on fixed outgoings.

A Liverpudlian on an average salary there has £2,100 less in disposable income than the average Brit, these figures suggest.

The difference is stark – in Southampton, the average monthly disposable income of £824.57 was around two-fifths higher than in Liverpool £490.93.

Some of the national differences are likely to be explained by differences in earnings, with wealthier cities generally featuring higher in the rankings.

But that effect seems to be limited – average incomes are similar in Liverpool and Southampton, for example, despite the sharp contrast in disposable incomes.

The main factor at play is likely to be how expensive things are in different parts of the country, particularly rent.

For example, Londoners earn considerably more than Mancunians on average, but they also have to spend a lot more to keep a roof over their heads.

They end up with roughly the same amount of disposable income, and both are fairly low down the list.

Here’s the full ranking of the 17 cities analysed by MoneySuperMarket ranked by the percentage of income spent on fixed outgoing:

• 17. Liverpool (75.01%)
• 16. Norwich (74.00%)
• 15. Birmingham (72.48%)
• 14. London (71.48%)
• 13. Nottingham (71.35%)
• 12. Plymouth (70.51%)
• 11. Leeds (69.87%)
• 10. Manchester (69.52%)
• 9. Bristol (67.49%)
• 8. Cardiff (67.01%)
• 7. Glasgow (64.25%)
• 6. Edinburgh (63.89%)
• 5. Newcastle (63.21%)
• 4. Sheffield (62.58%)
• 3. Brighton (61.08%)
• 2. Belfast (60.28%)
• 1. Southampton (60.03%)

Peter Duffy, CEO of MONY Group, which owns MoneySupermarket, said: ‘This year, people report having a bit more money left after they’ve paid bills and expenses, which they’re choosing to spend on things like home improvements, subscription services, and gym memberships.

‘Even with the rise in disposable income, people are more determined than ever to find savings wherever possible. ‘

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