Incomes sink to 1970s levels as inflation bites

The average household's "real" income – what is coming in after inflation – will have fallen by 1.6% over the three years to the end of 2011, the think-tank says. In contrast, over the previous half a century, real incomes rose an average 1.6% a year, or 5% every three-year period, the Telegraph reports. The study flags up the fragility of the UK's economy as it struggles out of the deepest recession since the 1930s. The current decline marks the first drop in the average household's income over any three year period since the early 1990s, and represents the most dramatic fall seen...