Britain's five richest families worth as much as the entire poorest 20%

A study claims Britain’s five richest families have accumulated more wealth than the whole of the bottom 20% of the population.

16:14 17 March 2014

Oxfam has published the results of a study which seems to provide proof that the gap between rich and poor indeed continues to grow. The research claims that Britain’s five richest families are worth as much as the entire poorest (20per cent of the population) of the country.

The UK billionaires, which include property investor Charles Cadogan and Sports Direct boss Michael Ashley have combined wealth of £28.2bn, more than the poorest 12.6 million people in Britain, according to Oxfam.

Ben Phillips, Oxfam’s director of campaigns and policy, said: “Britain is becoming a deeply divided nation, with a wealthy elite who are seeing their incomes spiral up, whilst millions of families are struggling to make ends meet.

“It’s deeply worrying that these extreme levels of wealth inequality exist in Britain today, where just a handful of people have more money than millions struggling to survive on the breadline.”

A Labour spokesman said: “While people on low and middle incomes are worse off, David Cameron has given the top one per cent of earners a £3bn tax cut this year. He’s totally out of touch with ordinary people and always stands up for the privileged few.”