UK personal wealth at £6 trillion

"For sale" signs in Birmingham

The wealth of UK households has been given a dramatic boost by rising house prices, says the Halifax bank.

It calculates that total net personal wealth more than doubled between 1996 and 2006, to £6.336 trillion.

More than half that rise was due to higher house prices which pushed up the value of people's homes, after mortgage debt, to £2.7 trillion.

While house prices rose by 216% in that time, the lender says mortgage debt rose more slowly, by just 163%.

"The financial position of households in total has strengthened substantially over the past decade," said Martin Ellis, the Halifax's chief economist.

"Whilst much has been said about the rise in debt, it is important to note that the value of households' assets has risen at a faster pace."

Houses, estimates the Halifax, now make up 43% of the UK population's total personal wealth, rather than the 26% they accounted for in 1996.

Even so, other assets have become more valuable too, though not quite as fast.

Cash savings doubled in the decade from 1996, and together with other things such as shares and pensions are now valued at a net £3.634 trillion.

These non-property financial assets now account for 57% of all personal wealth.

Stamp duty

Other figures, published by HM Revenue and Customs, show how rising house prices have provided a tax bonanza for the government.

STAMP DUTY RATES Below £125,000 zero rate Above £125,000 1% Above £250,000 3% Above £500,000 4%

Stamp duty on residential property sales in the UK brought in £6.44bn for the chancellor in the last financial year, 2006-07.

That was more than double the level seen five years earlier in 2001-02, when this tax take stood at £2.69bn.

The basic rate of stamp duty is 1% on sales worth more than £125,000.

But higher rates were introduced in 1997, taxing sales above £250,000 at 3%, and those above £500,000 at 4%.

These rates have not changed since then, so with a quarter of all house sales now being valued at £250,000 or above, the government's take from stamp duty is now booming.

Despite an intense campaign against inheritance tax in some quarters of the media, HMRC figures show it is not as onerous.

In 2006-07 it brought the government £3.5bn, up 50% during the previous five years.