UK wealth gap continues to widen
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New official figures have revealed that the gap between the amount of wealth owned by the UK’s richest and poorest households has grown by a third since 2006.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), just under £5 trillion of assets was held by the top 10 per cent of households in 2012-14, compared with £5.7million belonging to the bottom 10 per cent – a gap of more than £4.9 trillion.
This is an increase of 34 per cent on 2006-08, when the gap was £3.7 trillion.
The figures were published by the ONS as part of a survey of the nation’s wealth.
The ONS describes the distribution of assets in the UK as “highly skewed towards the top”, with the richest 10 per cent of households holding 45 per cent of the country’s wealth.
The poorest 10 per cent account for less than half of 1 per cent.
Every household in the top 10 per cent had a total wealth of at least £1.05 million.
Those in the bottom 10 per cent had £12,600 or less.
The wealthiest households were concentrated in south-east England.
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