The UK saw $1.5tn (£1.2tn) wiped off its wealth during 2016 after the Brexit vote sent the pound tumbling and the stock market into reverse, according to a survey by Credit Suisse. A fall in values at the top-end of the property market also contributed to about 400,000 Britons losing their status as dollar millionaires and one of the biggest drops in wealth among the major economies. But the UK remained third for the number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals, who own more than £50m in assets, behind the US and China. And the UK’s top 1% of richest people also continued to own 24% of the nation’s wealth, the report said. Across the globe, the richest 1% own more wealth than the rest of the world put together, continuing the dominance seen in last year’s report. A recovering in the global stock markets in recent weeks is also likely to reverse some of the losses suffered by pension savers and wealthy individuals. Oxfam said the huge gap between rich and poor was “undermining economies, destabilising societies and holding back the fight against poverty”. The findings from the Credit Suisse Research Institute’s seventh annual global wealth report that found the overall growth in global wealth remained flat in 2016, following a trend that emerged in 2013 and contrasting sharply with the double-digit growth rates witnessed before the global financial crisis of 2008. Michael O’Sullivan, chief investment officer in Credit Suisse’s wealth management arm: “The impact of the Brexit vote is widely thought of in terms of GDP but the impact on household wealth bears watching. “Since the Brexit vote, UK household wealth has fallen by $1.5tn. Wealth per adult has already dropped by $33,000 to $289,000 since the end of June. In fact, in US dollar terms, 406,000 people in the UK are no longer millionaires.” The report found that total global wealth in 2016 edged up 1.4%, or $3.5tn, to $256tn in line with the increase in the world’s adult population. Accordingly, average wealth per adult of $52,800 remains in line with last year’s figures. The number of millionaires globally increased by 155%, while the number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals has risen by 216%, making them by far the fastest-growing group of wealth holders. More than 90% of the wealthiest people in the world live in developed nations, mostly the US, but the rise of millionaires and ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) in China meant there was a shift to emerging economies in recent years. Credit Suisse said: “This century, no other segments of the wealth pyramid have developed as significantly as the millionaire and UHNWI segments. The number of millionaires is projected to reach 45.1 million by 2021, while the number of UHNWIs could reach 208,000, up from 141,000.” The US hosted the highest number of UHNWIs with 56,000 followed by China with around 9,000, the UK in third place with 5,000. Oxfam said it was clear from the survey that the wealthiest are holding their own while those on lower incomes are struggling. Spokeswoman Sally Copley said: “The wealthiest one percent of the population - who own nearly a quarter of all the country’s wealth – continue to do well whilst so many people in Britain are just about managing to stay above the poverty line. “Tomorrow’s autumn statement presents a real opportunity for the government to show how they are going to make the economy work for everyone and not just those at the very top,” she said.
Presents the opportunity - but does anyone really think that this shower of sh*t will take up the challenge? Theresa May has been spouting appropriate platitudes recently, but what's going on behind the scenes doesn't match her words. I doubt very much that the word 'everyone' figures in her action plan.
Cabinet minister David Davis allegedly told a powerful EU parliamentarian that Britain wants to stay in the European Single Market as part of its Brexit deal. Davis, who was appointed by Theresa May to head the newly-formed Department for Exiting the European Union (DexEU), reportedly revealed the UK government's intention in a meeting with German politician Manfred Weber. Speaking to journalists after meeting with Davis on Tuesday, Weber said: "Today I’ve been told that the British government as far as the economy is concerned, it wants to stay in the single market." This was confirmed by the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg, who tweeted saying: "How's that running commentary going? Leader of biggest group in euro parly [parliament] says David Davis told him govt wants to stay in single market."
I'm sure the UK government want to stay in the single market as long as we can control our borders and end free movement, regain sovereignty, and to stop sending vast sums to the EU. I'm sure the UK's negotiators expect a negative response. Francois Fillon becomes more electable as the days go on. His views on the EU seem to match the high percentage of eurosceptics in France. He recently said "Today Europe at best is inefficient, useless, out fashioned and at worst is an obstacle to our development and our freedom." He is just the sort of pragmatist the UK needs to be negotiating with over Brexit.
I don't think the UK government has a clue as to what it wants, and my view is backed up by those who will negotiate. We will not tell anyone in the UK what we are doing, and yet it is creeping out that we want almost no change. Maybe the government is taking notice of the way that opinion about Brexit has changed.
The UK government is absolutely correct to not reveal details at this stage, there is plenty of time once article 50 has been evoked. Theresa May will instruct her negotiators to simply bear in mind the instructions from the UK electorate on 23rd June. We will definitely achieve sovereignty and end of free movement. There may be some UK movement of finance but hopefully not. The scenario you desperately hope for (soft Brexit) is a non starter. It would be suicidal for the UK government and contrary to anything the EU side have said so far. I predict the EU side will insist on the UK agreeing to pay a large bribe before proper negotiations begin properly. This will be rejected and negotiations will drag on until after the German elections. Hopefully I'm wrong about this and the EU act sensibly.
No details for you SH, but on this side of the channel we get information. I predict that the bill to leave will be eye watering. Late payment of dues, pension payments for UK personal working in Brussels, grants agreed and paid up front to be reclaimed, it goes on and on. The EU do not have to do anything but follow their own rules, it is the UK that is begging for yet more favours.
Don't believe what you think is information, it is put out to confuse the EU. The bill to remain in the EU is already eye watering which is why the UK voted to leave. The EU can try to bully the UK but it will only feed the growing euroscepticism throughout the EU. Europe could be a very different by the end of the two year period.
https://inews.co.uk/essentials/news...edge-vision-leaving-eu-without-deal-imagined/ Tell me what and why you don't agree with this SH. I cannot see it getting this far, common sense will take over first. I note that the brexiteers are already decrying Teresa May and want a GE. Typical of them turning on the very party that gave them the chance to get what they wanted.
Imagine the response if it had been China, or in the old days, the Soviet Union telling the UK who to appoint as ambassador to their country. That is ignoring the fact that the UK has career diplomats, not politically appointed ones.
You need to stop reading biased scare stories, you'll have trouble sleeping !! This article is much more Chamberlain than Churchill.
JP Morgan would be reluctant to move jobs to Paris following Britain's exit from the EU because of France's protectionist labour laws, the US-based investment bank ' France head told Reuters on Tuesday. Paris could be an attractive option to move small groups of well-paid traders who are on expat contracts, but not for back offices with thousands of people. Bankers have cast doubts on the chances of France luring much of the UK's financial industry after the Brexit vote, citing the country's unstable tax regime and labour rules that make people difficult to fire as major deterrents. This is why France is desperate for a serious politician like Fillon. Any prime minister that is brave enough to declare 'France is bankrupt financially' has a grip on reality.
Half a billion pounds is the cost to the taxpayer for the civil servants, lawyers, etc in the Whitehall Brexit Department.
Philip Hammond will admit to the largest deterioration in British public finances since 2011 in next week’s Autumn Statement when the official forecast will show the UK faces a £100bn bill for Brexit within five years. Slower growth and lower-than-expected investment will hit tax revenues hard, the official forecasts will show, supporting the Treasury’s pre-referendum warnings that the long-term economic costs of Brexit are high. Seems as if the Financial Times underestimated the bill at £100bn, seeing as Philip Hammond has confirmed the figure to be £122bn
Firstly nobody is claiming the extra borrowing is solely down to Brexit even the majority of it. The UK has higher growth, lower unemployment and much lower debt than France. The superiority the UK enjoys relative to France is forecast to continue. When you look at the top 20 nations with the biggest public debt the UK does not even make this list unlike many EU nations. Greece, Italy, France, Spain, Ireland, Belgium, Cyprus, Portugal are all on the list of shame. Even in the UK's forecasted worst year it will not come anywhere near the level of debt suffered by these EU nations. As I've said before Frenchie, you should be more concerned with the deteriorating state of the finances of France.
So your quite happy that Hammond admits French productivity is better than the UK? Your quite happy that the national debt is now as high as the French and is to rise to over 90% of GDP? What is clear is that the French government will change next year, maybe for the better, while the UK will have no idea where it is going.
