Banking chief says Brexit has already cost each household £900

The governor of the Bank of England has revealed the decision to quit the European Union is already hitting hard-working families in the pocket.

Speaking before the Commons Treasury Committee Mark Carney told MPs economic growth was between 1.5% and 2% lower than predicted on the eve of the referendum.

He said: 'That's a reasonable difference. If you map it into household incomes, real household incomes are about £900 per household lower than we forecast in May 2016, which is a lot of money.

'The question is why and what drove that difference. Some of it, and we can't be absolute about it, but some of it is arguably ascribed to Brexit.'

He added that business investment was still being held back and said there was only a chance of a 'pick-up' in investment when the Brexit agreement is finalised.

'It's understandable why businesses are holding back – there's some big decisions that are about to be made - why wouldn't they want to wait until the path becomes clearer?' he said.