Wealth gap between richest and poorest households 'up by a third'

The gap between the amount of wealth owned by the UK's richest and poorest households has grown by a third since 2006, figures show.

Just under £5 trillion of assets was held by the top 10% of households in 2012-14, compared with £5.7 million belonging to the bottom 10% - a gap of more than £4.9 trillion.

This is an increase of 34% on 2006-08, when the gap was £3.7 trillion.

The figures were published by the Office for National Statistics (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% of households holding 45% of the country's wealth.

By contrast, the poorest 10% of households account for less than half of 1%.

Every household in the top 10% had a total wealth of at least £1.05 million. Those in the bottom 10% had £12,600 or less.

The survey found that the wealthiest households are concentrated in the South East and London.

Almost a quarter (22%) of households in the South East hold wealth of at least £1.05 million, while the figure for London is 18%.

This compares with 6% in the East Midlands and Yorkshire & Humber, 4% in Wales and just 2% in north-east England.

The richest 10% of households have around 43% of their wealth invested in property, while only 5% is made up by physical possessions such as valuable household items.

The poorest 10% have a third of their wealth in physical possessions and 29% in property.

Total household wealth in the UK in 2012-14 was £11.1 trillion, up 18% on the previous period of 2010-12. Much of this rise was "due to the increase in private pension wealth", the ONS said.

The survey also found that:

:: Average (median) household wealth is £225,100

:: The wealth held by the top 10% of households is around five times greater than the wealth of the bottom half of all households combined

:: 96% of households in the wealthiest 10% own at least one car, compared with 58% for households in the least wealthy 50%

:: Personalised number plates are owned by 7% of households and have a total value of £2 billion