UK housing worth 63pc of UK plc

The value of dwellings belonging to households and non-profit organisations was £4.1 trillion, 95 per cent of the total value of dwellings.

The latest data published by the Office for National Statistics today shows the the total net worth of the United Kingdom at the end of 2011 was £6.8tn.

This was an increase of £220bn or 3.3% on 2010 values. It equates to approximately a net worth of £110,000 per head of the population.

Households and non-profit institutions remained the sector with the highest net worth in 2011 – at £7tn it was bigger than the overall worth of the country.

This was possible as other sectors had negative net worth, the largest of these negative valuations being for central government at -£763bn.

All the sectors of the economy have seen an increase in total net worth between 2010 and 2011 except central government which saw a decrease of nearly 40% compared with the previous year.