Seven key takeaways on the level, profile and distribution of Britain’s £12.8 trillion of wealth

a post by Conor D'Arcy for the Resolution Foundation blog

We get monthly updates on pay and authoritative data on household incomes every year. But we have to wait two years for a detailed breakdown of what’s happening to wealth across Britain. Here are seven key takeaways from the latest data published today and what it tells us about changes in the level, profile and distribution of Britain’s wealth.

In brief:

1. Britain has excelled at generating wealth
2. But that wealth is very unequally spread
3. The lowest-income households fared worst in recent years
4. Londoners’ wealth has galloped ahead of the rest of Britain
5. But there are wide inequalities within London too
6. Rising wealth has not been equally shared across the generations
7. Auto-enrolment has helped but the fall in pensions inequality pre-dates it

Expanded in the post with a short explanation and understandable graphs. H.
http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/media/blog/seven-key-takeaways-on-the-level-profile-and-distribution-of-britains-12-8-trillion-of-wealth/

In summary, Britain has lots of wealth – and lots more than it did a decade ago.

But Britain is also a country of major wealth divides that cut across income levels, regions and generations. What’s most remarkable of all, though, is the lack of debate about whether these trends are good or bad – and what policy can do to change it.

Given the huge economic pressures Britain faces in the coming years and decades, it’s high time we had a proper debate about the scale, distribution and taxation of our wealth.

That’s a debate our Intergenerational Commission will be looking to spark in the coming weeks and months.