Notably, prices in London rose by 5.5 percent which is below the 5.6 percent English average, signalling that the time of explosive, double-digit growth is well over.
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Unemployment stayed at 5.5 per cent across the United Kingdom as a whole in the three months between May and July – the same as the previous three month period.
Adjusted for inflation, ONS data showed the 2.9pc real increase in regular pay was the fastest since August 2002. But we still face risks both from the global economy and from those at home who would undermine our economic security, hike taxes and nationalise industry.
The pound rose against the euro by one cent following the news and was up 0.7 cents against the dollar.
For the North-East, the pattern prior to the latest estimates has been for gently increasing employment rates to record highs in late 2014 and early 2015.
There were 31.09 million people in work, up 42,000 from the previous quarter and 413,000 higher than a year earlier.
The sharp rise represents the biggest monthly hike seen for a year, buoyed by a continued lack of housing supply and extremely cheap mortgage deals. This figure was 24,000 lower than for February to April 2015 and 65,000 lower than for the year before.
But the number of non-UK nationals in work in the country climbed much more sharply over the period, by 257,000, to reach 3.18 million.
“Their average weekly pay is rising at a rate of 1.3 per cent, nearly three times slower than the average rate of pay growth in the private sector”, he added.
“The Government’s extreme spending cuts will mean more women and men lose their jobs as councils and other public sector employers lay off workers in the coming months if austerity policies are maintained”.
It is also awaiting the U.S. central bank’s decision about interest rates, which is set to be announced at 7pm today.
However, unemployment has risen for a third month in a row – the first time this has happened since 2011.
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It certainly looks like something different is now happening in the United Kingdom labour market, following two years of pretty rapid declines in unemployment, and a strengthening employment rate.
