Pledge
“The government will deliver a milestone of higher living standards in every part of the United Kingdom by the end of the Parliament”
Our verdict
The latest available national data shows both GDP per head and RHDI per head are higher than when Labour took office, but we don’t yet know whether this applies in every part of the UK.
As part of a series of “milestones” set out in its “Plan For Change” launched on 5 December 2024, the government pledged to deliver “higher living standards in every part of the United Kingdom by the end of the Parliament”.
It said it will measure “headline progress” against this pledge through “higher Real Household Disposable Income per person and GDP per capita” by the end of the parliament, and that it will also track GDP per capita at a regional level.
Real Household Disposable Income (RHDI) per person is a commonly used measure of living standards—it has risen in every parliamentary term since records began in 1950, but saw the weakest overall growth during the previous parliament.
GDP per capita refers to the size of a country’s economy divided by its population. According to the Resolution Foundation, the UK’s GDP per capita has risen in every parliamentary term since 1955 except for the 2005-2010 and 2019-2024 parliaments (which coincided with the financial crisis and the pandemic respectively, both of which significantly impacted the UK economy). GDP per capita growth across all regions of the UK, however, has only been achieved “in three of the last six parliaments”.
The government has only specified that these measures must be higher at the end of the current parliament (set to be the 2029/2030 financial year)—it has not set a numerical target.
This pledge was published on 5 December 2024. However, based on documents published alongside its Spring Statement in 2025, it appears to be measuring progress between Q3 2024 and Q2 2029. We’ve asked the government in March 2025 and again in March 2026 to confirm the exact baseline figure against which this commitment will be measured, but at the time of writing have not received a clear answer. So we will use Q3 2024 (Labour’s first quarter in government) as the baseline.
Join 73,000 newsletter subscribers who trust us to check the facts
Sign up to get weekly updates on politics, immigration, health and more.
Subscribe to weekly email newsletters from Full Fact for updates on politics, immigration, health and more. Our fact checks are free to read but not to produce, so you will also get occasional emails about fundraising and other ways you can help. You can unsubscribe at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy.
We’re rating this pledge as “appears on track” as the latest data shows both GDP per head and RHDI per head are higher than when Labour took office.
Meanwhile in 2025, which roughly covers the year since Labour made the pledge in December 2024, GDP per head is estimated to have increased by 1.1%, while RHDI per head is estimated to have increased by 0.6%.
Regional GDP per capita data is published with a two-year lag, so it will be some time until we have the data we need to see whether living standards have improved in every part of the UK.
As we develop this Government Tracker we’re keen to hear your feedback. We’ll be keeping the Tracker up to date and adding more pledges in the coming months.
Progress displayed publicly—so every single person in this country can judge our performance on actions, not words.
Sir Keir Starmer, Prime Minister – 24 September 2024