Guess which two London boroughs are suddenly loaded

In these uncertain times it’s nice to know that there are still some Londoners with spare change. New figures released by the accountancy firm UHY Hacker Young reveal that two London boroughs have shared a faster rise in disposable income than anywhere else in the country. Westminster? Kensington and Chelsea? Nope: it’s Lewisham and Southwark that have found themselves unexpectedly flush, with their 5.3 percent rise coming in at ten times the UK average.

This being London, it’s obviously not all good news. The findings show that the rise isn’t due to, say, rising wages among the existing population, but newcomers barrelling into south-east London with fancy jobs and a taste for brunch. There’s also been a corresponding exodus of people on lower incomes, including plenty of people ‘decanted’ from the Heygate estate in Elephant & Castle.

And in case you were wondering, London’s posher boroughs aren’t doing too badly either: Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham share the UK’s second-biggest increase in income. If you’ve got friends there, it’s time to start raising your Christmas present expectations.

In other news, the gap between London house prices and wages has hit a record high