ECONOMICS: Poorly placed in South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire was singled out as the poorest place in Britain yesterday in a survey which names Hamburg in Germany as the richest city in Europe, and Luxembourg the richest country.

The figures show Britain slipping in the league table of wealth per head of population - although London remains well up with the front runners, in ninth place. The poorest place in Europe is Ipeiros in Greece. Eurostat, the EU's Luxembourg-based statistical office, pointed out last night that as wealth per head is not the same as disposable income, the figures do not necessarily mean that people in one region are more prosperous than another.