UK's Household Wealth 'Surpasses £7tr'

According to new research, the UK's total household wealth has surpassed the £7tr mark for the first time.

Researchers for Lloyds TSB Private Banking found that net worth, which includes the value of residential buildings and financial assets held by households – minus outstanding debts – was estimated at £7.05tr by the end of 2012.

However, the increase is not equally distributed among society, with the top 10% accumulating wealth at a much greater rate.

Even with the current condition of the economy, Lloyds said the £2.71tr increase over the past 10 years equated to a £86k per household gain since 2003. It added that a jump in financial assets boosted the increase in household wealth, contributing £1.7tr to the overall figure.

Financial assets include bank and building society deposits government bonds, shares in listed companies, life assurance and pensions.

Lloyds economist Nitesh Patel said: "Most of this increase came during the 'boom' years prior to 2007 when the economy grew rapidly, with rising employment and incomes."

He added: "While wealth has soared in the past decade, there is a large divide in where it has accumulated. The wealthiest 10% of households hold 22 times more wealth, on average, than those in the bottom half."

Lloyds used official figures as well as those from its own database to make its findings.

(JP)