The North is poorer and contributes far less to the national GDP than the South East, but compared to the national pay gap, it is fairer up North

Ed Miliband recently addressed the subject of pay inequality in a speech at the Resolution Foundation’s launch of the Commission on Living Standards, highlighting the growing gap between the top and bottom wage earners in the country and concluding that the benefits of economic growth are not shared fairly. Jenni Viitanen argues that observations about the way in which economic growth tends to disproportionately benefit a narrow section of the wealthiest in society underscore the question of who and what remain in the shadows of the UK economy.