The BBC are picking up on the story that Isle of Wight might be split into different voting areas.
There are two Island residents quoted in the article – East Cowes Resident Pat Luckett and David Holmes from Totland.
David’s quote ends with, “The economics of the island is completely different to the South East.”
This is a very good point and has been a problem consistently for the Island. The assumption by ‘them up in London’ is that, as lots of the South East of the UK has a lot of wealthy people living in it, that the Isle of Wight has too. Quite wrong.
While there are some people on the Island with lots of money, the average household income is considerably lower than around the South of the UK.
With the Island lumped in to the relatively wealthy South East, the Island misses out.
Recent example
A concrete recent example of this was in the recent budget. The Chancellor gave a National Insurance Contributions (NICs) holiday for new businesses which start-up in certain areas of the UK.
When VB asked the Treasury is this was to include the Island, they replied …
“The National Insurance Contributions holiday for new businesses does not apply to the South East, East or London (as the Isle of Wight is included in the South East region, this means it would not apply).
“The Chancellor has made clear that tackling the deficit is the Government’s urgent priority, and the decision has been taken that support should be focused on the regions most in need of it.”
Given that, it’s clear that the new Government doesn’t view the Island as “most in need of” support.
It would be interesting to know where the Island’s household income levels fit Nationally.
Image: Thomas Claveirole under CC BY-SA 2.0
