WIREDGOV

Total household wealth in Great Britain was £10.3 trillion in 2008/10, according to the latest Wealth in Great Britain chapters, released yesterday by ONS. This is a rise of 12.9 per cent or £1.2 trillion since 2006/08 when it was £9.1 trillion.

However, the report also highlights widening disparities between the households at the top and bottom of the wealth distribution. The top 10 per cent of households had a total wealth of £4.5 trillion in 2008/10 (up from £4.0 trillion in 2006/08), whereas the bottom 10 per cent had only £0.008 trillion (£8bn), up from -£443 million in 2006/08.

Mean household total wealth grew from £373,000 in 2006/08 to £418,000 in 2008/10; the region with the highest mean value in 2008/10 was the South East at £562,000; the lowest was the North East where mean household total wealth was £322,000.

The overall increase in wealth was mainly down to an increase in pension wealth. Between 2006/08 and 2008/10, overall pension wealth increased from £3.6 trillion to £4.8 trillion. However, pension wealth was not distributed evenly. For households with pension wealth, the top 10 per cent had pension wealth totalling £2.4 trillion, with the bottom 10 per cent having only £0.008 trillion (£8bn).

The report also shows that across Great Britain, 64 per cent of people were not paying in to a private pension in 2008/10, with 42 per cent of adults having no private pension savings at all.

Total net financial wealth for all private households in Great Britain increased by £54 billion (5.3 per cent) to £1,085 billion between 2006/08 and 2008/10. Increases were seen in both household financial assets and liabilities, but the increase in savings outweighed the increase in liabilities.

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