In response to the cost of living crisis, the UK government has announced a number of measures – including a non-repayable rebate on energy bills for some households – to relieve the pressure from rising prices. While these are to be welcomed, they do nothing to tackle a much deeper social and livelihood crisis that has been building for decades.
Gaps in income have widened sharply since the 1970s. The share of national income taken by the top 1% has doubled, rising from 6% in 1977 to 13% in 2018. Because this rise has squeezed incomes among the rest of the population, especially those at the bottom, the level of child poverty (based on a relative measure) has also risen sharply, from 14% in 1977 to 27% in 2021.
The level of personal wealth, meanwhile, has been rising at twice the rate of incomes, while becoming increasingly concentrated at the top. Private wealth holdings now stand at nearly seven times the size of the UK economy compared with three times in the 1970s.
