Why women and young people could hold more wealth in future

With two-thirds of British households being home owners, and with valuations varying widely, that disperses wealth to generations who have found it harder to make their way in the property market.

The growth of home ownership since the 1980s, with council house sales and easy access to mortgages, has spread wealth more evenly in Britain than in many similar countries, emphasising the country’s obsession with bricks and mortar.

That is surely welcome, but the transfer within and across generations continues the spread of wealth in an uneven way.

The Great Wealth Transfer will not feel so great for some. Bigger families will see wealth dispersed. Only children will do best. Many will be handed down no wealth at all.

This raises questions about ways in which single women and younger generations can use their wealth differently – perhaps in more productive ways than holding property.

It also raises several issues of public policy: how much can and should government catch in its tax net during that transfer?

The new Labour government has already taken aim at methods used by those with clever wealth managers to avoid paying inheritance tax.

In its election promise not to increase tax on ‘working people’, that conspicuously fails to cover the deceased. That increases the incentive to maintain a large rainy day fund. Meanwhile, some hold on to wealth for fear of large care bills.

Until governments – at Westminster and Holyrood – settle on a sustainable and reliable policy for funding long-term care, they are making it less likely that dispersal to younger generations can be brought forward.