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Britain's richest 1% own as much
as poorest 55% of population
ONS
figures reveal growing wealth disparity and north-south divide, with nation's
top 10% owning 44% of household wealth
Britain's richest 1% have accumulated as much wealth as the poorest 55% of the
population put together, according to the latest official analysis of who owns
the nation's £9.5tn of property, pensions and financial assets.
In figures that also lay bare the extent of inequality across the north-south
divide, the Office for National Statistics said household wealth in the
south-east had been rising five times as fast as across the whole country.
The average wealth of households in the southeast had surged to £309,000 at the
end of 2012, up 30% since the first wealth report published by the ONS covering
2006-8 – while the average rise in England was only 6%.
But wealth in the north-east had fallen, the only region where it did so, to an
average of just under £143,000. In Scotland the figure was £165,500.
The data also shows that one in nine households have second homes or rental
properties and one in 14 sport a personalised number plate on their car.
Northern regions lost out after a dramatic rise in stock market values that was
grabbed mostly by households in the south east, the ONS figures show.
The situation is likely to have worsened following an 18% surge in house prices
over the past year in the south-east and even higher at the top end of the
market.
A rush to save among richer households as the recession deepened boosted the
nation's total wealth and ensured Britain's long-established financial
inequality remained in place, with the top 10% laying claim to 44% of household
wealth – while the poorest half of the country had only 9%.
Rachael Orr, Oxfam's head of poverty in the UK said the figures were a "shocking
chapter in a tale of two Britains".
The charity recently reported that five billionaire families controlled the same
wealth as 20% of the population. "It is further evidence of increasing
inequality at a time when five rich families have the same wealth as 12 million
people," she said. "We need our politicians to grasp the nettle and make the
narrowing gap between the richest and poorest a top priority. It cannot be right
that in Britain today a small elite are getting richer and richer while millions
are struggling to make ends meet."
Duncan Exley, director of the Equality Trust, said: "The grotesque concentration
of wealth in the hands of a tiny minority is fracturing our society, weakening
our economy and giving disproportionate power to the richest. Unless
policymakers adopt a clear goal of reducing the gap between the richest and the
rest, they will have to govern an increasingly dysfunctional nation."The report
comes after French economist Thomas Piketty has ignited international debate
about inequality by documenting the rapid accumulation of assets by the top 1%
over the four decades since the 1970s.
Britain's top 1% saw their share of wealth increase slightly in the four years
before 2012, grabbing the same share as 54.9% of the population, up from 54.2%
in 2008/10.
But the Treasury said the report showed that wealth inequality had remained the
same throughout the six years up to 2012 while income inequality had declined to
levels last seen in 1986. A spokesperson said the government's efforts to
protect the poorest during the recession had worked.
"The effects of the Great Recession are still being felt which is why we have
taken continued action to help hardworking people by cutting income tax and
freezing fuel duty.
"And we want to help more people to save for their future or own their own home
which is why we are giving people more flexibility over their pensions and
introducing Help to Buy. At the same time we have introduced new higher rates of
stamp duty on the most expensive homes and done more than any previous
government to crack down on tax evasion and avoidance in order to ensure that
everyone pays their fair share in tax."
Critics of the wealth report said it failed to capture the huge diversion of
wealth to offshore tax havens, which account for trillions of pounds worth of
savings.
A series of investigations into offshore tax havens have documented the success
of their banks in attracting a steady rise in the savings and financial assets
of the richest 1%.
There was also a clear disparity between women and men over who owns the most
homes, pensions, cars and stocks and shares. The average value of men's total
pension wealth was nearly twice as high as women's in 2010/12 – £63,000 compared
with £34,800.
The power of the grey pound is highlighted in the report by several measures,
including one showing that couples without children, where one person is over
and the other under the state pension age, have the highest total wealth at
£607,800, up from £452,000 in 2006.