Housing costs making UK households much poorer than US peers, study finds

Report says wealth gap would be wider if not for over-priced or ineffective services such as healthcare in US

The average US household is almost a third richer than its UK counterpart and most of this difference is down to housing being cheaper in the US, according to a study by a leading thinktank.

If it were not for the fact that homes are 40% less expensive a square metre on average in the US - allowing them to live in much larger properties for the same outlay - US households would have the same standard of living as their counterparts across the Atlantic.