If you are sitting at the top of the British rich list, then you need to take heed of a wealth warning as the government has compiled a new Doomsday Book that measures wealth instead of income.
For the first time, the Office Of National Statistics has compiled a picture of household wealth looking at asset values as an indicator of how well off people are rather than income.
If this is a case of history repeating itself, William the Conqueror’s famous original Doomsday Book was a census of the nation’s wealth for taxation.
The survey – compiled over the two years from 2006 -2008 – does not take in to account the affects of recession.
Nevertheless, the figures show that Britain’s estimated £9,000 billion of household wealth is mainly made up from property and pensions – each making up 20% each of the total.
They also show the wealthiest 10% own 44% of the assets, while the poorest 50% own just 9% of them.
The distribution of assets presents a completely different picture from the distribution of income.
The survey shows that as people age, the source of wealth changes.
The poor tend to spend and do not save, so have any wealth they have tied up in cars, electronic goods and household goods.
The middle aged have more valuable homes and the rich have cash in pensions.
Business holdings and future earnings, like the state pension are excluded from the calculations.
The surveys also showed those with a degree are more likely to end up wealthier than their peers who do not go to university.
Unsurprisingly, wealth is also split across the regions, with higher property prices in the southeast increasing the wealth of those who live there. The self-employed are also more likely to be well off than their employed counterparts.
Interestingly, as these figures have come available, the government has looked at taxing the pensions of the wealthy with new measures in the Chancellor Alastair Darling’s pre-Budget Report earlier this week.
The figures show the government is narrowing in their major tax initiatives on the top 400,00 or so earners who can afford to input more cash in to their pensions to increase their wealth.
