SWINDON is one of the best-paid towns in the country. It has the highest average hourly wage £14.09 in the south west, higher than anywhere outside affluent London, the south east and East Anglia.

On average Swindon workers are taking home about £27,500 a year.

The research was carried out by the GMB union.

GMB regional secretary Richard Ascough said: "The yardsticks are drawn from reliable official figures for pay."

Mr Ascough said any workers who compared unfavourably should join a union, but people in Swindon pointed to the figures as proof that Swindon is booming.

Swindon Council leader Mike Bawden said: "This just underlines the strength of Swindon's economy and it is vitally important for us all to acknowledge the role we play in the economy of the United Kingdom.

"It underlines the success of Swindon over the years, and I feel Swindon is the best business location in the UK."

Rosemary Callender, spokeswoman for Nationwide which is one of several large businesses in Swindon alongside Honda, Intel and Arval said she could understand why the town's employees were getting paid well.

She said: "Swindon has a lot of major employers and a very talented and committed workforce.

"Large employers like Nationwide focus on benefits for staff, because happy employees service our customers more effectively."

David Evans, economic development manager at Swindon Initiative, said: "If you look at the people who work here, these figures are probably right, as the economy is performing very well.

"But if you look at the people who live here, the figures are probably lower.

"These figures are deceptive in that a lot of lower paid people live here, and a lot of managers earn their money here and go home to where they live, which could be 100 miles away.

"That's part of Swindon's problem. People want to work here but they don't particularly want to live here."

Dennis Grant, chief executive of the Swindon Chamber of Commerce, said: "There's a degree of logic to these figures.

"The reality is that we are so close to the M4 we tend to face towards London.

"We're right on the edge of the south west region, which puts us a stone's throw from the high-income areas.

"One of the problems with regional statistics is that this region is so diverse.

"Three quarters of this region is tourist and agriculture based."

But the league tables were met with suspicion by other workers' groups.

Martin Wicks, of the Swindon TUC, said: "Average wage surveys often disguise the reality of low pay.

"We have known for a long time that Swindon has a high average wage, thanks to its high number of skilled workers.

"These people would boost the average wage.

"But we should remember that there are an awful lot of unskilled workers particularly Eastern European migrants who survive on very poor wages."

Kevin Shoesmith