Britain’s huge wealth gaps mean a typical worker would need to save more than a lifetime’s worth of their earnings to become wealthy

It would now take 52 years’ worth of typical earnings – £1.3 million in total – to move from the middle to the top of the wealth distribution, as wealth gaps continue to grow across Britain, according to new research from the Resolution Foundation, published today (Wednesday).

Before the fall examines the scale and distribution of household wealth across Britain, using the latest data from the ONS Wealth and Assets Survey. It finds that Britain’s stock of wealth continued to grow during the pandemic, reaching a new record high of 7.5 times GDP. With relative wealth inequality also remaining high, absolute wealth gaps between rich and poor families have grown sharply.

The report finds that it took 38 years’ worth of median full-time earnings to move from the 5^th to the 10^th decile in the wealth distribution in 2006-08. By 2020-22 it had grown to 52 years’ worth. A typical full-time employee, miraculously able to save all their earnings across their entire working life, would still not be able to reach the top of the wealth ladder.

The gap in average family wealth per adult between the middle and the top deciles has grown from £1 million in 2006-08, to £1.3 million by 2020-22, in real cash terms.

The authors note that the majority (53 per cent) of the increase in household wealth since the start of the 2010s has come from passive gains, such as rising house prices, rather than active behaviour on the part of households, such as acquiring new assets.

This increase has primarily benefited the already-wealthy, with gains flowing disproportionately to older, homeowning families, and have worsened intergenerational inequality. The wealth gap between people in their early 30s and people in their early 60s has more than doubled between 2006-08 and 2020-22 – from £135,000 to £310,000 (in real cash terms).

Wealth is also unevenly distributed between regions, with median wealth per adult in 2020-22 standing at £290,000 in the South East, compared to just £110,000 in the North East.

Britain’s wealth gaps are most stark in the capital, where a combination of high (and rising) house prices and low home ownership rates mean that families at the top held 12 times more wealth per adult than those at the middle (compared to a gap of 5.2 across Britain as a whole).

The Foundation warns that these entrenched wealth gaps reflect the growing importance of who your parents are, rather than how hard you work, in shaping lifetime living standards.

Britain’s wealth gaps are doubly concerning as wealth mobility in Britain is severely limited, say the authors.

After controlling for the wealth accumulation effects of ageing, the research finds that three-in-four (76 per cent) people from lower-income families don’t move more than one decile up or down the wealth distribution over a four-year period.

Securing employment was found to be the biggest single driver of upward wealth mobility among lower-income families.

Molly Broome, Senior Economist at the Resolution Foundation, said:

“Wealth gaps in Britain are now so large that a typical full-time employee saving all their earnings across their entire working life would still not be able to reach the top of the wealth ladder. These gaps are doubly concerning as wealth mobility in Britain is low – people that start life wealthy tend to stay wealthy, and vice versa.

“Rising house prices and changes in the value of pension promises account for most of the growth in wealth gaps since the early 2010s, rather than any active behaviour on the part of individuals, such as buying homes or acquiring new assets.

“Soaring wealth and an acute need for more revenue has prompted fresh talk of wealth taxes ahead of the Budget next month. But with property and pensions now representing 80 per cent of the growing bulk of household wealth, we need to be honest that higher wealth taxes are likely to fall on pensioners, Southern homeowners or their families, rather than just being paid by the super-rich.”