THE wealth gap between people in their thirties and sixties has more than doubled in a decade, new research has found.

A new analysis by the Resolution Foundation think tank looked at how Britain’s growing wealth gap between 2006-8 and 2020-22.

The report found that during this period, the wealth gap between those in their early thirties and those in their early sixties increased from £135,000 to £310,000 in real terms.

It notes that the majority (53 per cent) of the increase in household wealth since the start of the 2010s has come from passive gains, such as rising house prices, which have largely benefited those who are already wealthy such as older, home-owning families.

The report also exposed the extent at which wealth is unevenly distributed between regions, with median wealth per adult in 2020-22 standing at £290,000 in south-east England, compared with £110,000 in the north-east.

The average worker must also save for longer to become wealthy.

In 2006-8, a typical worker would have needed to save every penny of their earnings for 38 years to reach £1 million and move from the middle to the top of the wealth distribution.

But by 2020-22, that figure had risen to 52 years, with workers requiring £1.3m to achieve the same level of wealth.

Resolution Foundation senior economist Molly Broome said: “Soaring wealth and an acute need for more revenue has prompted fresh talk of wealth taxes ahead of the Budget next month.

“But with property and pensions now representing 80 per cent of the growing bulk of household wealth, we need to be honest that higher wealth taxes are likely to fall on pensioners, southern homeowners or their families, rather than just being paid by the super-rich.”