Total household wealth in the UK has soared past the £7 trillion mark for the first time, research has found.
Net wealth which includes the value of residential buildings and financial assets held by households, minus outstanding debts has been estimated at £7.05 trillion for the end of last year.
Lloyds TSB Private Banking, which carried out the research, said that despite the current tough state of the economy, there has been a £2.71 trillion increase over the past decade, equating to £86,000 per household.
Lloyds said that a rise in financial assets has boosted the increase in household wealth over the last decade, contributing £1.7 trillion to the overall rise.
Financial assets include bank and building society deposits, government bonds, shares in listed companies, life assurance and pensions.
Meanwhile, housing wealth has increased by £1 trillion over the past decade as the value of property has risen by more than the increase in mortgage debt.
Nitesh Patel, economist at Lloyds TSB Private Banking, said: “Household wealth has gone past £7 trillion for the first time; growing by over an estimated £2.7 trillion in the past decade.
“Most of this increase came during the ‘boom’ years prior to 2007 when the economy grew rapidly, with rising employment and incomes.
“While wealth has soared in the past decade, there is a large divide in where it has accumulated. The wealthiest 10% of households hold 22 times more wealth, on average, than those in the bottom half.”