Do you feel richer? Today the UK is worth £6.01 trillion. That’s to say our net wealth, the value of our houses, roads, hospitals etc. has broken though the £6 trillion mark, compared to a mere £1.7 trillion when Mrs Thatcher moved into number 10.
In fact, in 1948 we were worth a mere £551 billion.
How has this happened?. No prizes for guessing the big contributor to our wealth: it’s our homes. Today, 59.9% of our wealth resides in property, compared to just 42 percent in 1994, after the crash in the housing market.
But is that we are really worth? According to the Office of National Statistics it would cost £2.67 trillion to replace all the country’s capital assets.
Maybe the difference between the cost to replace and the valuation is hot air. Perhaps the valuation is being driven up by house buyers and sellers filling each other’s coffers?
Some say the high level of our wealth shows how sustainable the UK economic boom is. But its seems to us that if wealth is built on a bubble the assertion is a tad absurd.
To subscribe: visit this link
Comments
Trackbacks