InvestingReviews.co.uk commissioned senior independent economist John Hawksworth to carry out the study of 100 cities and towns across Great Britain, measuring the amount of time a typical full-time employee has to work to afford a takeaway sausage roll from the famous bakery. The Greggs Sausage Roll Index is loosely modelled on the famous Big Mac Index published by The Economist since 1986 to measure purchasing power across different nations. The study found that people in Worthing have to work four minutes and three seconds to afford one Greggs sausage roll. Mr Hawksworth found the hardest earned sausage rolls were in Lichfield where people have to work 4 minutes and 54 seconds for a sausage roll, followed in joint second by Middlesbrough, Nuneaton, Truro and Hereford, where people have to work 4 minutes and 48 seconds. For comparison, people in Eastbourne had to work slightly less time at three minutes and 56 seconds, while people in Chichester had to work longer, at four minutes and 15 seconds. The study found that people in those towns typically had to work around 65 per cent longer than Londoners, who have to work two minutes and 58 seconds to afford their sausage roll. Mr Hawksworth said the analysis was a bit of fun but it also opened people’s eyes to a much more serious point. He added: “But it does also make the serious point that there are very large variations in income levels across our towns and cities. “These local earnings gaps are driven by variations in productivity across places that reflect deep-seated disparities in education, opportunity and infrastructure across the country. “Narrowing these income gaps remains one of the most important economic challenges facing this and future governments.” The Greggs Sausage Roll Index is the first known use of Sausage Roll-onomics as a benchmark tool to compare living standards across Great Britain, and exposes the regional inequalities that persist despite the government’s flagship levelling-up agenda. It was calculated using Greggs sausage roll prices and local median hourly pay estimates provided by the Office of National Statistics (ONS). The approach was to take the latest available estimates of median gross hourly pay for full-time employees from the 2021 ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) and adjust them according to the latest available estimate from the ONS of regular pay growth in the three months to February 2022 as compared to a year earlier. InvestingReviews.co.uk CEO Simon Jones said: “Amid all the government’s talk of levelling up, a great divide still exists across Great Britain today with Greggs customers in some parts typically having to work 65 per cent longer than Londoners just to be able to afford a sausage roll. “As the cost of living squeeze continues to intensify, Brits are going to have to work a lot harder in the future to afford life’s simple pleasures. “The government is going to have to take urgent action if their flagship policy doesn’t become a millstone around their neck.” Publication of the index comes just weeks after the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities released its levelling up white paper which outlined the government’s plans to target geographic inequalities. Meanwhile, Greggs has warned customers they may have to work even harder for their sausage roll in the future, with a raft of price hikes expected later in the year. More Sussex stories: BBC’s Escape to the Country pays a visit to Arundel Littlehampton Bonfire Society need community’s support ‘more now than ever’