The combined wealth of UK billionaires surged by a staggering £35 million per day in 2024, reaching a total of £182 billion, according to a new report by Oxfam.
This equates to enough cash to blanket the city of Manchester in £10 notes nearly one-and-a-half times over, highlighting the growing wealth disparity in the country.
The anti-poverty charity's findings reveal that four new billionaires emerged in the UK last year, bringing the total number to 57.
This accumulation of wealth comes as many face increasing financial pressures.
Oxfam has called on the Government to support higher taxation on the super-rich which, the organisation said, could be used to tackle inequality in the UK and overseas and invest in public services.
The charity’s inequality policy lead Anna Marriott said: “For the first time, with the groundbreaking G20 agreement to co-operate on taxing the world’s super-rich, there is genuine momentum to implement fairer taxation globally.
“The UK should champion this opportunity to help build more equal societies at home and abroad.”
The report, titled Takers Not Makers, revealed that global billionaire wealth grew by two trillion US dollars last year, from 13 trillion to 15 trillion, which is equivalent to around 5.7 billion US dollars per day.
The world is now on track to see five trillionaires within a decade, the charity said.
On average, the wealth of the world’s 10 richest people, all of whom are men, grew by almost $US 100 million per day.
If the 10 men lost 99 per cent of their wealth overnight, they would remain billionaires, the charity said.
Meanwhile, Oxfam highlighted that 44 per cent of the world’s population currently lives on less than 6.85 US dollars per day, according to data from the World Bank.
Ms Marriott said the data revealed a “shocking acceleration of wealth” over the last year.
She added: “The global economic system is broken, wholly unfit for purpose as it enables and perpetuates this explosion of riches, while nearly half of humanity continues to live in poverty.”
Oxfam said its analysis highlighted that billionaire wealth is “largely unearned”, and that, globally, 60% comes from “inheritance, monopoly power, or crony connections – between the richest and governments”.
The charity is calling for a new global UN tax convention which would ensure the world’s wealthiest people and corporations “pay their fair share” along with the abolition of “tax havens”.
The annual report was published as business leaders gather in Davos for the World Economic Forum annual meeting this week and is based on data from Forbes’ 2024 Real-Time Billionaires List.
