London: The Hinduja brothers have emerged as the third richest family in Britain as part of an analysis of the divide between the rich and poor in the UK.
According to research published by the charity Oxfam here on Monday, the latest rich list from 'Forbes' magazine showed that London-based Srichand and Gopichand Hinduja have a combined wealth of USD 10 billion.
The five top UK entries analysed for its 'A Tale of Two Britains' report found the family of the Duke of Westminster as the richest followed by David and Simon Reuben, the Hindujas, the Cadogan family, and Sports Direct retail boss Mike Ashley who between them had property, savings and other assets worth 28.2 billion pounds.
It implies that the country's five richest families now own more wealth than the poorest 20 per cent of the population, with their wealth totalling 28.1 billion pounds.
The development anti-poverty charity said the UK government should explore the possibility of a wealth tax after revealing how income gains and the benefits of rising asset prices had disproportionately helped those at the top.
"Britain is becoming a deeply divided nation, with a wealthy elite who are seeing their incomes spiral up, while millions of families are struggling to make ends meet," said Oxfam's director of campaigns and policy, Ben Phillips.
"It's deeply worrying that these extreme levels of wealth inequality exist in Britain today, where just a handful of people have more money than millions struggling to survive on the breadline," he added.
The charity has urged UK chancellor George Osborbe to use his Wednesday's Budget to make a fresh assault on tax avoidance and introduce a living wage in a report highlighting how a handful of the super-rich.
The report asserts that widening inequality is creating a "vicious circle where wealth and power are increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few, leaving the rest behind".
"This means the rules are constantly rewritten in favour of the rich, for example through policies such as lower taxes for high earners," it says.
In January, an Oxfam report found that the richest 85 billionaires on the planet own the same amount between them as half the world's population or 3.5 billion people.
