A lifetime of earnings still not enough to join UK's richest

Research by The Resolution Foundation has found that it would take the average worker 52 years to match the wealthiest 10 per cent of people in Britain

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BRITAIN'S wealth gaps mean that a typical worker would need to save more than a lifetime's earnings to become wealthy, according to a think tank.

The Resolution Foundation said that it would take 52 years' worth of typical earnings - £1.3 million - to move from the middle to the top of the wealth distribution.

"Entrenched" wealth gaps mean that who your parents are rather than how hard you work has grown in importance in shaping living standards, the foundation said, with families who already have assets benefiting disproportionately from Britain's wealth boom.

The report said: "The stability of key measures of UK wealth inequality over recent decades masks a significant widening of absolute wealth gaps.

"Gains have flowed disproportionately to older, asset-rich households and homeowners in certain regions - particularly London.

"The result is a wealth landscape that is both highly unequal and harder to climb, as saving alone is no longer enough to shift a household's position in the distribution."

The document said: "Britain's wealth has expanded dramatically over recent decades, fuelled largely by periods of low interest rates and a sustained surge in asset prices."

The research, which used data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Wealth And Assets Survey, said household wealth reached £17 trillion in 2020-22, of which £5.5 trillion (32%) was held in property and £8.2 trillion (48%) in pensions.

The report said: "Britain's wealth reached a peak of nearly 7.5 times GDP by 2020-22, up from around three times GDP in the mid-1980s.