Britain’s long-running cost-of-living crisis is no longer a temporary shock but a structural decline, according to a stark new forecast from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). The UK-based think tank warns that high inflation, weak growth, and mounting debt are steadily eroding living standards, leaving British households poorer than before the Covid-19 pandemic and pushing the country down the global economic rankings. Far from regaining lost ground, the UK is now expected to fall further behind most of its G7 peers over the coming decade.

CEBR’s World Economic League Table, released on December 26, paints a sobering picture. The report projects that the UK will slip from 19th to 22nd place in global GDP per capita rankings by 2030, overtaken by economies such as Hong Kong, Finland, and the United Arab Emirates. Even more striking is the longer-term outlook: by 2035, British living standards are forecast to fall behind those of Malta, a former colony with a fraction of the UK’s population and economic heft. In dollar terms, GDP per capita is expected to reach just $58,775 next year, a figure that underlines how limited income growth has become for the average Briton.

What makes the forecast particularly troubling is Britain’s weak performance relative to its closest competitors. According to CEBR, the UK’s GDP per capita growth over the next five years will be the second weakest in the G7, ahead of only Japan. This is not a case of global stagnation dragging Britain down; rather, it reflects domestic vulnerabilities that other advanced economies have been more successful at managing. While countries such as the United States and parts of Europe have seen........

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