Finance
UK workers face growing wealth gap challenge, think tank says
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on October 8, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on October 8, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
The UK wealth gap is widening due to rising asset prices, with the richest 10% holding half of total assets. London sees the sharpest inequality rise.
LONDON (Reuters) -Rising asset prices have widened the wealth gap between the most well off 10% of British households and the average, a think tank said on Wednesday, highlighting the country's growing wealth inequality.
The Resolution Foundation, which focuses on issues facing lower- and middle-income Britons, said the richest 10% of households held around half of total assets, little changed since the 1980s.
But rises in prices for assets - chief among them property and private pension savings - had made it harder for average earners to catch up.
Household wealth for an adult in the wealthiest 10% of households in 2020/22 was on average 1.3 million pounds greater than that for someone in a household in the middle of the wealth distribution, compared with 1 million pounds in 2006-08.
The most recent difference is equivalent to 52 years of average income, up from 38 years.
The wealth gap between people in their early 30s and their early 60s had more than doubled to 310,000 pounds, it said.
Molly Broome, senior economist at the Resolution Foundation, said the data showed the likely fallout of any move to increase taxes on wealth which some politicians from the ruling Labour Party want in finance minister Rachel Reeves' November budget.
"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," Broome said.
The report was based on an analysis of official data first published in January.
London saw the sharpest rise in inequality since 2006-08 due to fast house price growth in the city where property wealth is the most unevenly distributed in Britain, it said.
($1 = 0.7442 pounds)
(Writing by William SchombergEditing by David Milliken)
Pension savings are funds that individuals set aside during their working life to provide income during retirement. These savings can be accumulated through various pension plans and investment vehicles.
Household wealth is the total value of all assets owned by a household, including property, savings, investments, and other valuables, minus any liabilities such as debts.
An asset is any resource owned by an individual or entity that has economic value and can provide future benefits. Examples include cash, real estate, stocks, and bonds.
The Resolution Foundation is a UK think tank focused on improving the living standards of low- and middle-income families. It conducts research and provides policy recommendations on economic issues.
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