UK regional pay divergence widens: Northern Ireland +7.4%, South East +2.9%

August 2026 update — The 2025 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, published by the ONS in October 2025, gave the clearest signal in years that the pace of UK pay growth is diverging sharply between regions. For chartered surveyors, engineers and architects — professions where mobility across regions is common — that shift changes the calculus of where to live and work.

The headline numbers

Based on ASHE 2025 (April 2025 pay period):

• UK median full-time annual pay: £39,039 (+4.3% year-on-year).
• Fastest-growing region: Northern Ireland at +7.4% year-on-year.
• Slowest-growing region: South East of England at +2.9% year-on-year.
• Wales: +4.2% — behind the UK average.

The 4.5 percentage-point gap between the fastest and slowest region is the widest recorded in the ASHE series since 2019. In the previous three years, regional growth rates clustered within a much narrower band of roughly 1.5-2 percentage points.

Why the gap is widening

Three factors are converging in 2025:

1. Base effects. Regions that started with lower median pay (Northern Ireland, the North East, Wales) had more room to catch up as UK-wide wage floors moved higher — statutory minimum wage rose to £12.21 an hour in April 2025 and pulled up lower-percentile earners.
2. Public-sector concentration. Regions with a higher public-sector share (Northern Ireland especially) benefited disproportionately from the 3.6% NHS AfC uplift and the 4% teacher award.
3. Slower professional-services growth in the South East. Financial-services bonuses that boosted London and the South East in 2023-24 normalised in 2025. That produced a mechanical drag on regional headline growth even as absolute pay levels remained the highest in the country.

What this means for chartered surveyors

Chartered surveying spans commercial property, quantity surveying and construction consultancy — sectors with strong regional variation. The narrowing gap in growth rates does not close the underlying level gap: London and the South East still pay meaningfully more than Northern Ireland or the North East in absolute terms.

Our UK chartered surveyor salary guide by region for 2026 has the current regional base ranges and shows where the biggest premia sit.

What this means for civil engineers

Civil engineering pay is highly geographically differentiated because it tracks infrastructure pipelines. Northern Ireland's strong 2025 growth partly reflects a wave of transport and health infrastructure programmes; the South East's slower growth reflects a slower private-development pipeline in the same period.

Our UK civil engineer salary guide by region for 2026 shows the region-by-region base and where the strongest growth is landing.

What this means for architects

Architecture practices have felt the same regional divergence. RIBA fee income data (separate to ASHE) shows Northern Ireland and Wales practices reporting faster billing growth in 2025 than the South East. That flows into architect pay with a lag.

Our UK architect salary guide by region for 2026 has the current region-by-region ranges.

The relocation question

For a chartered professional considering a regional move, the question is not whether growth rates converge — it is whether absolute pay levels do. On current ASHE data, the answer is: not yet. London still commands a £10,000-£15,000 premium at the median for most professional roles, even after 2025's growth divergence. The gap is narrowing on percentage terms, but it will take several more years of similar divergence to close it in absolute cash terms.

Methodology and source

All figures in this article are drawn from the Office for National Statistics (2025) Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings: 2025 Provisional, published 23 October 2025. Regional growth rates are for full-time employees, gross annual pay, place of residence basis. Data is used under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Small samples are suppressed by the ONS to protect respondent anonymity.