NOT so long ago politicians were desperately looking for green shoots of recovery. Now the economy is positively blooming and as the latest GDP figures confirm, we have returned to pre-recession levels.

Which is great news, or rather it’s great news for some. As Business Secretary Vince Cable writes in The Press today, the recovery needs to be better balanced and we need every part of the UK to be firing on all cylinders.

Most worrying are the poverty figures. A recent survey by the Poverty and Social Exclusion (PSE) project suggests that one in three cannot afford to heat their homes properly, while four million adults and children are not able to eat healthily. And having someone in the household in work is no panacea. PSE found that many struggling households had at least one adult in employment.

The trouble is many of them are on zero hours contracts, still more earn less than the living wage and for these people the green shoots of recovery will never appear.

Some like to point out that this is a north-south issue; it is not. London may be powering away from the rest of the UK, but every other part of England has become relatively poorer since 1997. Indeed Cornwall is officially the UK’s poorest region and Islington, for all its apparent wealth, has the fourth highest rate of child poverty in England.

Which illustrates the real problem, which is the gaping chasm between rich and poor. Until politicians address this rather than crowing about GDP figures the recovery will continue to be enjoyed by just a few.