If we take an honest look at life in the East of England today, and in my city of Norwich, we do not see the prosperity that governments have often boasted about. We see a region where too many people are running faster and faster just to stand still.
In Norwich, wages remain below the national average. One in five workers earns less than the real living wage. One in six is trapped in insecure work – zero hours, agency or short-term scraps dressed up as jobs. Meanwhile, rents have risen by more than 20% since 2021. A quarter of private renters are handing over half or more of their income just to keep a roof over their heads. That is not prosperity; that is daylight robbery with a tenancy agreement.
Council homes are overwhelmingly the solution to this country’s housing problems. There is always space for private housing, for affordable housing and for housing associations, but it is council housing, built in a sustainable way, that will solve the housing crisis in this country. Developers – not climate, nature or local democracy – are the block to building more houses.
Public transport in my region is patchy at best. Broadband in rural Norfolk is slower than a tractor on a Sunday morning – people who live in Suffolk or Norfolk will know what I mean. Child poverty levels run at one in three in Norwich once housing costs are factored in and, although we are blessed with extraordinary landscapes, too many of our neighbours live in what I can only describe as nature deserts – no green space within walking distance, and no safe place for kids to play.
Poverty and living standards
I think that one of the key ways of lifting people out of poverty is by strengthening trade unions and their sectoral pay bargaining ability, which I do not think even this government – my government – are going to do. That is key, particularly in the areas of social care and many other low-paid sectors. It would ensure that people get decent pay and attract people into those areas. It would make a massive difference.
We face real and urgent challenges in the east of England. Now, the government – my own party’s government – tell us not to worry, because living standards are going to rise, and we have a plan for growth. But what do we mean by that? In practice, it means looking overwhelmingly at one number: disposable income, or what is left jingling in our pockets at the end of the month. Useful, yes – but adequate? No.
Reducing the richness of life to something we can measure is like trying to paint a rainbow with a single grey crayon: we get the outline, but none of the colour, none of the joy, none of the lived reality. The Indian economist and philosopher Amartya Sen warned that dignity cannot be reduced to decimal points. Martha Nussbaum, a US philosopher and ethicist, reminds us that the question is not just what we earn, but what we are free to do and to be. Kate Raworth is also right: paper prosperity that trashes the planet leaves our children bankrupt.
When we are told that living standards are up because the averages look rosy, we should remember what Danny Dorling pointed out: an average can hide a multitude of sins. If Jeff Bezos walked into a Norwich pub, the average wealth in the room would shoot through the roof, but not a single person’s pint would get cheaper – and I doubt he would get to the bar ahead of anyone else, either.
Poverty and empowerment
Poverty is very often out of sight, out of mind. The dispersal of rural poverty makes it easier to hide, and harder for organisations to point out.
The real way to ensure that resources are going to the right place is to ensure real devolution: empowering communities, local government and local people to decide where the money is spent, because they know best. Ultimately, pushing power down is how we will get better outcomes.
Measuring living standards
Let us be blunt: living standards as currently measured give us a snapshot, but not the whole picture. They can tell us whether the tills are ringing, but not whether the people are thriving.
Look at Norwich: a zero-hours care worker has no work-life balance to speak of; they have work-life whiplash. Mental health referrals in Norfolk are up 40% since 2020 – we will not find that in an Office for National Statistics income chart. The poorest wards in my city have five times fewer parks per person than the richest. Try raising kids in a concrete cage in one of the most polluted parts of the city – where, unfortunately, our government subsidises electric SUVs that, through their brakes and tires, churn out more particulate matter than smaller electric vehicles – and then tell me that their living standards are on the rise.
Let us look at Norwich South. We had more than 500 sewage pollution incidents last year. My constituents are not comforted by fines levied on Anglian Water; their lived standard is filthy rivers, dead fish, cancelled swims and massive bill hikes, while they watch multimillion-pound payouts to shareholders and executives – and that is after the passing of our much-vaunted Water (Special Measures) Act 2025.
So when the government cheers that GDP is up, or that the average household is a few pounds better off, I say, “Growth for whom? Growth for what? Growth at what cost?”
This is an abridged version of Clive Lewis’ early comments during the debate ‘Living Standards: East of England’, in Westminster Hall on Wednesday 3 September 2025. Our second article “Empowering communities: pushing power down is how we get prosperity” is an abridged version of Clive Lewis’ comments during the final part of the debate.
Full transcript of the debate, interventions by other MPs and response by Emma Reynolds, Economic Secretary to the Treasury can be found here.
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