According to Oxfam analysis, the richest 1% of people in the UK are now wealthier than the bottom 70% of the population combined.
Based on the charity’s report, the 685,500 richest people in the UK are worth a total of £2.8 trillion, compared to 48 million people in the UK whose combined wealth is worth £2.4 trillion.
Oxfam’s report, Survival of the Richest, paints a picture of growing global inequality, with extreme poverty and wealth increasing at the same time for the first time in a quarter-century.
The richest 1% amassed nearly twice as much “new wealth” – revenue generated in the global economy – as the rest of the world combined in 2021 and 2022.
According to the report, over the last two years, this elite group pocketed £21 trillion in new wealth, accounting for nearly two-thirds of all new revenue.
This comes after the number and wealth of billionaires more than doubled in the last decade.
At the same time, at least 1.7 billion workers now live in countries where inflation outpaces wages, and more than 820 million people – roughly one in every ten people on the planet – lack access to adequate food.
Oxfam is advocating for one-time “solidarity wealth taxes” and a permanent increase in taxation for the richest 1% to at least 60% of their income from labour and capital, with higher rates for billionaires.