Top 1% of income tax payers concentrated in London and the South East

Using data from income tax records new research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) shows the scale of the gulf between the well off and the very richest. Someone with a pre-tax income of a little over £50 000 will be among the highest income 10% of income tax payers. Only those with more than three times that make it into the top 1% while the top 0.1% enjoy pre-tax incomes in excess of £650 000 a year. These groups are overwhelmingly male middle-aged and based in London and the South East. Their geographic concentration has increased further since the early 2000s. Between 2000-01 and 2014-15 the proportion of the top 1% living in London grew by a fifth from 29% to 35%.

The findings show that more than half of the top 1% live in London and the South East with more than...