asked Her Majesty's Government:

What proportion of national wealth was owned by each quintile of the population in each of the years 1976, 1996, 2006 or the latest year for which figures are available; and what they estimate the proportions will be at the end of the current comprehensive spending review.[HL7341]

Estimates of quintile values for the period requested are not available. Published information on the wealth distribution between 1976 and 2003 can be found at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/personal_wealth/table13_5.pdf

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What proportion of national income was received by each quintile of the population in each of the years 1976, 1996, 2006 or the latest year for which figures are available; and what they estimate the proportions will be at the end of the current comprehensive spending review.[HL7342]

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.

Letter from the Director of Macroeconomics and Labour Market, Colin Mowl, dated 14 September 2006.

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question asking what proportion of national income was received by each quintile of the population in each of the years 1976, 1996, 2006 or the latest year for which figures are available; and what they estimate the proportions will be at the end of the current comprehensive spending review. I am replying in her absence. (HL7342).

National income commonly refers to income generated by the production of goods and services by the whole economy, only some of which is distributed to households. As such, it is not possible to allocate national income to household quintile groups. However, it is possible to do this for income received by households and estimates have been provided in the table below.

These estimates are based on the ONS analyses The effects of taxes and benefits on household income. The latest analysis for 2004-05 was published on the National Statistics website on 12 May 2006 at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/taxesbenefits. The analysis is based on data from the Expenditure and Food Survey, which is a sample survey covering approximately 7,000 households in the UK.

“Equivalised” household disposable income is adjusted to take into account the different size and composition of households. This equivalised income can then be used as a comparable measure of living standards for all households.

The following table shows estimates of the percentage share of total equivalised disposable income received by each household quintile group. The latest available estimates are for the year 2004-05, and there are no projections beyond this. The earliest available estimates which are based on equivalised incomes are for the year 1977.