Saving for a rainy day seems to be a thing of the past, according to Abbey’s 2003 ‘savings insight report’. Savers in the UK are concentrating on more specific goals such as holidays, new homes and weddings, but this differs in every region.

According to Abbey’s research, it seems that residents of Merseyside spend the year dreaming of faraway shores with almost half (44 per cent) saving specifically for holidays, more than any other region in the UK. This has increased significantly since 2002 when just 30 per cent of savers in Merseyside saved with this objective in mind.

Saving for the sun

Across the nation, holidays are the most popular specific reason to save with almost a third (33 per cent) of savers in Yorkshire and Greater Manchester (30 per cent) saving for this reason, compared with a national average of 28 per cent.

The second most popular reason to save is old age with almost 16 per cent of savers in Greater London focusing on this goal, an increase of a third since 2002. Residents in the North West are also keen to focus on their later years, with 15 per cent saving for old age, an increase of a quarter since 2002.

Saving increasing

Across the country there has been an average increase of 45 per cent in the amount saved regularly each month over the past ten years. This is particularly apparent in the North and North West where regular saving has increased by 54 per cent and 44 per cent since 1993.

The amount saved each month varies widely across the country. The best regular savers in the UK live in the North, putting away the highest percentage of monthly income (10.2 per cent), an average of £222 per month. Regular savers in Greater London put away the most cash per month at £245. This amount has increased considerably over the past ten years, from £137 in 1993.

Unfortunately for Manchester residents, this is the only region where saving levels have decreased over the past 10 years, to just £154 per month from £161. Only 6.7 per cent of monthly salary is saved. Welsh savers put away just £7 more per month now than they did in 1993, managing to save an average of £133 per month (6.3 per cent of salary) compared with £126 ten years ago. People in Merseyside save the least in the country, putting away just £110 per month (5.4 per cent of salary).

There are also regional differences in the frequency of saving. Again the North is number one, with almost 50 per cent of residents saving regularly, an increase of seven per cent since 1993 when the North was ranked fourth. The South East is in second place having slipped from number one in 1993 - 46 per cent of these residents manage to save regularly. Greater Birmingham has maintained last place with just one third (37 per cent) of the residents saving regularly, although this has increased by four per cent since 1993.

Angus Porter, Abbey’s Customer Director said: “Everyone has events to save for such as births, marriages, education and holidays, so the earlier you start saving, the easier it is. It’s encouraging to see that more people are saving regularly compared with 10 years ago. However, there are still only two fifths of UK adults saving regularly to meet their goals”.