BLACKBURN with Darwen residents have one of the lowest disposable incomes in Britain, according to a new survey.

It comes 174th of 177 areas in a league table compiled by the IPPR North think tank at an annual £12,276 per head.

Only Sandwell, Nottingham and Leicester in the Midlands come lower in the list.

Overall Northerners have £2,300 less disposable income than the rest of the country according to the left-leaning IPPR North.

The rest of East Lancashire including Burnley, Pendle, Ribble Valley, Rossendale and Hyndburn comes in at 127th at £15,166.

The figures for 2013 show only two Northern areas feature in the top 50 of country’s richest in disposable income and that disposable income in the North is £2,300 lower per head than the rest of the country.

Disposable income of Londoners was the highest in the country at £22,500 per head in 2013 – £7,000 higher than the North – though people living in London face higher housing costs.

Disposable income for the North stands at £15,300. The UK average is £17,600.

Blackburn MP Kate Hollern and Pendle Tory Andrew Stephenson clashed over whether Chancellor George Osborne’s Northern Powerhouse Strategy would repair the North-South divide.

Luke Raikes, research fellow at IPPR North, said: “The North should pursue growth and prosperity built on higher wages, more jobs and stronger productivity – not simply try to catch up to London and the South East, where the type of economic growth they’ve experienced has created high levels of inequality and left many behind.

“The Northern Powerhouse will be meaningless for the people who live and work in the North unless the economic growth it generates reaches their pockets.”

Mrs Hollern said: “This shows that government policy is not helping East Lancashire.

“Since 2010 the Tory-led coalition has seen the area slip behind the affluent South.

“Their Northern Powerhouse proposals are a smokescreen and Blackburn and other East Lancashire towns are in danger of becoming Northern poorhouses as a result of Tory policies.”

Mr Stephenson said: “The Northern Powerhouse proposals about about putting this imbalance right.

“By giving back political and economic power back to Northern cities, the economy will start to revive and catch up.

“As Manchester, Liverpool, and Leeds revive that will spread wealth and income to the East Lancashire economy and East Lancashire people.”