“The Equality Trust has today published its annual Wealth Tracker, analysing the extreme wealth of Britain’s richest people.

This year it finds that the richest 1,000 people have more wealth than the poorest 40% of households [1]. The 1,000 richest saw their wealth increase by a staggering £82.5 billion last year, the equivalent of £226 million a day, or £2,615 a second.

The Equality Trust has found that this increase in wealth of £82.5 billion could:

•  Pay the energy bills [2] of all 25.6 million UK households for two and a half years. Cost = £79.15 billion OR
• Provide 5,143,819 million Living Wage jobs [3], or 2,923,333 million jobs paid at an average salary [4] for a year. Cost = £82.476 billion OR
• Pay the grocery bill for all of the UK’s users of food banks for 56 years [5]. Cost = £81.5 billion OR
• Pay two years’ rent for 4.5 million households (4,528,000 households) [6].  Cost = £72.1 billion OR
• Pay for 68% of the budget for the NHS in England [7] Cost = £81.6 billion
• Pay for 4 years of adult social care in England [8]. Cost = £78.8 billion

The Wealth Tracker can be found here.” (Source, also for the footnotes: https://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/richest-1000-people-have-more-wealth-poorest-40)