For a wealth tax economic

Wealth inequality is measured and growing

Far from being unproven, wealth inequality is documented and rising. In the UK the IFS Deaton Review finds the middle-to-top wealth gap grew from £299k to £432k in real terms after 2006, and the ONS finds the wealthiest 10% of households hold 41% of all wealth; the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank's household surveys find the same concentration. Housing and pensions are most household wealth and both pile up at the top.

3 evidence

Backed by

Trends in income and wealth inequalities (IFS Deaton Review of Inequality) Institute for Fiscal Studies · 2026 · research
The UK's most comprehensive recent study of inequality documents a widening wealth divide: the gap between middle and top households (5th vs 9th wealth decile) grew from £299k to £432k in the decade after 2006 — from around 10 to about 16 years of average earnings. Home ownership for people in their 20s and early 30s fell from 55% to 35% (mid-1990s to 2017) as real house prices rose 170%, and 14% of people in their 60s now own two or more properties. Pension wealth is the fastest-growing component of wealth, and while ethnic income gaps narrowed over 25 years the ethnic wealth gaps stayed vast, with regional divergence largely housing-driven. Wealth inequality in the UK is not unproven — it is measured and growing.
Household total wealth in Great Britain Office for National Statistics · 2022 · statistic
Wealth is far more concentrated than income: the wealthiest 10% of households held 41% of all wealth and the wealthiest half held 91%. The "top 1% pay X% of income tax" claim ranks people by taxable income, not by wealth — and much of the largest fortunes (capital gains, assets, unrealised gains) is taxed lightly or not at all, so income-tax shares are not a measure of what the genuinely richest contribute.
Quantitative easing: a dangerous addiction? House of Commons Library · 2023 · report
The Bank of England's quantitative easing programme expanded by an estimated £300–£450 billion over the pandemic, taking total asset purchases to £895 billion. By design QE inflates asset prices, and the Bank's own analysis and the Lords Economic Affairs Committee noted it disproportionately benefits existing asset holders — i.e. the wealthy — widening the wealth gap, while the distributional effects were never properly measured.