Greggs Sausage Roll Index reveals how long people in Liverpool have to work for to afford popular snack

A new cost-of-living study has used data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to determine how many minutes people in Liverpool and other UK cities must work on average before they can afford to buy a Greggs sausage roll.

Out of 100 cities included in the study, Liverpool was 33rd with customers having to work 3mins 47secs before they can purchase a Greggs sausage roll - typically priced at £1.05.

The city with the shortest time was London at 2mins 58secs and the city with the longest time was Lichfield with a time of 4mins 54secs.

St Helens ranked 11th, with residents having to work 3mins and 27secs to buy a sausage roll.

“In part the analysis is a bit of fun with the sausage roll standing in for the Big Mac as a standardised product to compare purchasing power across different places,” said John Hawksworth.

“But it does also make the serious point that there are very large variations in income levels across our towns and cities.”

Mr. Hawksworth added: “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.”

Greggs sausage roll index top 40