THE rich are still getting richer after five years of UK austerity – while the poorest households continue to suffer.
Data released yesterday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found the aggregate total wealth of all private households in the UK has now hit £11.1 trillion.
However, almost half of that is owned by the wealthiest ten per cent of people while the worst-off half of households owns just nine per cent.
The figure includes pensions holdings, property, savings and physical possessions, and the report shows that the richest households have enjoyed a 21 per cent boost in asset value in the past two years.
In contrast, the poorest 50 per cent saw their assets rise in value by just seven per cent.
And, covering the period from the onset of austerity in July 2010 to June 2014, the report found the wealth held by the top ten per cent of households is about 875 times greater than that of the bottom ten per cent.
Reacting to the news yesterday, Jamie Livingstone, head of Oxfam Scotland, said this growing inequality must end.
He told The National: “This report is yet more worrying evidence of the growing wealth gap between richest and poorest – this worsening inequality damages the economy and traps people in poverty.
“Inequality is a barrier to poverty reduction. To create a just society for everyone we need to challenge the concentration of wealth – and the power that flows from it – in the hands of the few.
“It is therefore essential that government, at both UK and Scottish levels, do all they can to ensure wealth is shared more equally, as doing so will benefit everyone in our society.”
According to ONS, the South East of England has the highest concentration of wealthy residents, with 22 per cent of households there worth at least £1,048,500.
Just seven per cent of households in Scotland fall into that category, which drops further to four per cent in Wales and two per cent in England’s North East.
The median household total wealth was £225,100, with the bottom 10 per cent of households worth less than £12,600.
The report said the distribution of wealth in the UK is “highly skewed towards the top”.
About £5tn of the overall total is in the hands of the top 10 per cent, with the bottom half of households sharing less than £1tn between them.
Much of the rise is attributed to an increase in private pensions, with the well-off preparing for comfortable futures. Almost all of those – 98 per cent – in the top wealth decile had private pension wealth, with the median figure hitting £749,000.
In contrast, almost half of those at the bottom of the ladder had any private pension pot, and the average figure held by this group was just £2,800.
Meanwhile, this group was also found to have savings worth just £400, compared with £154,000 for the best-off 10 per cent.
Last month, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation warned of “fundamental shifts in the causes of poverty” and said high levels of deprivation among young people mean the “next generation is facing worse life chances than their parents”.
The number of homeless families in the UK has grown by 13,000 in the past five years to more than 53,000 and about 3.7 million children are living in poverty, with 1.7 million young people aged 16 to 24 also living under the breadline.
The charity is calling for the Government to improve access to well-paid, sustainable work, more help for deprived youngsters and an increase in affordable homes to correct the problem.
Its chief executive, Julia Unwin, said change will take “commitment to tackling the drivers of poverty”, adding: “There is an important role for businesses, employers, and local leaders, who must to work together if we are to eradicate poverty.”
Meanwhile, Oxfam Scotland’s own research recently revealed the four richest families in Scotland have more wealth than the poorest 20 per cent of the population.
According to the Sunday Times Rich List 2015, the richest people in the country include whisky barons the Grant-Gordon family, worth an estimated £2.15 billion, Highland Spring owner Mahdi al-Tajir, thought to be worth £1.67bn, oil and gas tycoon Sir Ian Wood, whose fortune is worth £1.385bn, and Harrods owner Mohamed al-Fayed, worth £1.3bn.
In contrast, The Trussell Trust said this week demand for its food banks has reached a record high, with sharp rises in Glasgow, South Ayrshire, Aberdeenshire and Fife.
In some of its centres the charity will provide children’s gifts with food parcels to ensure youngsters living in extreme poverty receive a visit from Santa.
Calling for anti-poverty policies to be enshrined in manifestos for the Holyrood elections next year, Livingstone said: “We shouldn’t live with poverty, in Scotland or anywhere else, and the Scottish Parliament has a duty to do all it can to end it.”
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