This report aims to make sense of the huge increase in wealth of the richest in society by providing comparisons with recognisable household items and bills.
It finds that this year that the richest 1000 people have more wealth than the poorest 40% of households, and the richest 100 have over £100bn more wealth than the poorest 30% of households. The 100 richest saw their wealth increase by £40.1 billion last year, the equivalent of £109.95 million a day, or £1,272 a second.
The report explains that this increase in wealth of £40.1 billion could:
- Pay the energy bill for all 26.4 million UK households for over a year (13 months.) Cost = £40.1 billion OR
- Provide 2.76 million Living Wage jobs, or 1.83 million jobs paid at an average salary. The former providing jobs for every unemployed person. Cost = £40.06 or 40.09 billion
- Elevate all 1.386 million National Minimum Wage jobs to Living Wage jobs. Cost = £3.52 billion OR
- Pay the grocery bill for all of the UK’s users of food banks for 14 years. Cost = £37.76 billion OR
- Pay a year’s rent for nearly half of all renting households, or 4.05 million people. Cost = £40.04 billion OR
- Provide eighteen times the value of annual loans provided by the payday lending industry. Cost = £39.6 billion.