London's richest people worth 273 times more than the poorest

Academic argues in new book that society has the widest divide since the days of slavery

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• The Guardian, Wednesday 21 April 2010
• Article history

           

London is the most unequal city in the developed world. Photograph: Sarah Lee

London is most unequal city in the developed world, with the richest tenth of the population amassing 273 times the wealth owned by the bottom tenth – which creates a "means chasm" not seen since the days of a "slave owning society", according to a new book.

In Injustice: Why Social Inequality Persists published by Policy Press, Danny Dorling, a professor of human geography at Sheffield University and an expert on social disparity, paints a bleak picture of an extremely unjust Britain where differences in wealth have led to a profoundly divided society.