A nation of "haves" and "have nots"

25/07/2007 09:00

By Jennifer Hill

LONDON (Reuters) - Britons have almost six times more in savings and investments than they have in debt, but there is a gulf between the "haves" and "have nots", research shows.

Consumers have property worth 4.3 trillion pounds and have salted away 820 billion pounds in savings, according to the Alliance & Leicester (A&L).

Pensions and other assets, such as property investments, boost total assets by 1.8 trillion pounds to a total 6.92 trillion pounds.

This dwarfs the 1.3 trillion pounds people have in borrowings.

Britons owe 1.1 trillion pounds in mortgage debt and 200 billion pounds on credit cards, personal loans and overdrafts, according to the A&L data.

The research is based on figures from the Bank of England, the Department of Communities and Local Government, the Council of Mortgage Lenders and a poll of 2,993 people conducted by YouGov.

However, the findings point to huge variations.

The average household savings are 31,300 pounds, but 71 percent of households have less than 10,000 pounds in savings, with 29 percent having none at all -- meaning the richest have the lion’s share.

"Britons are increasingly losing the savings habit," said Ewan Edwards, head of savings and investments at A&L.

"On average, we are saving just 2.1 percent .....continued below

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of our disposable income, compared to 6 percent, on average, over the last 10 years -- itself low by historic standards.

"This (is) despite the fact that wages have risen faster than inflation, including housing costs."

The survey also shows huge differences in personal wealth depending on region and age group.

More than half the nation’s net assets are owned by people living south of Watford in Hertfordshire, yet this area accounts for just 39 percent of households.

People in London, the southeast and southwest of England own 2 trillion pounds worth of assets.

This disproportionate amount of wealth is not solely down to high house prices, as people here also have a high share of the nation’s savings at 46 percent.

In contrast, the Scots and Welsh collectively own just 10.6 percent of national assets, despite comprising 14.2 percent of households.

This is despite the fact that the Scots have amongst the highest levels of savings.

Two-thirds of personal wealth is in the hands of the over 55s, while the under 35s own less than a tenth.

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