Despite government efforts to improve the situation, more than a third of British people still have no savings, according to research published this weekend.

For the year 2000-1, the Institute for Public Policy Research found that 34 per cent of households had no savings, a reduction of a percentage point since 1996-7.

This figure rose to 46 per cent among households earning less than £10,400, and to 67 per cent among single parents.

This is despite initiatives including the Savings Gateway, first announced in April last year, in which the treasury matches savings in the account pound for pound.

"Our aim is the abolition of child poverty in a generation - and to open saving and wealth ownership to all. And to do that, we plan not only to improve the weekly incomes on which a child is reared but to make it possible for them to own and value wealth when they reach adulthood," the chancellor, Gordon Brown, said at the time.

However, the research also found that assets were still unevenly distributed.

Collective personal wealth in the UK increased from £500 billion in 1979 to £2,752 billion in 1999.

Of that, 93 per cent is held by the richest 50 per cent of the population, while the poorest 12 million people have collective assets of £150 million.

"The government should be seriously concerned about the numbers of people, particularly those on low incomes, who do not even have rainy day savings," said Will Paxton, a researcher at the IPPR.

"The government has through the minimum wage and tax credits made progress on tackling inequalities of income, yet the unfair distribution of personal assets must also be addressed.

"This IPPR research highlights a widening gulf between those with assets and those without. The evidence suggests an increase in wealth inequality in recent years and, more worryingly, an increase in the number of people who have no wealth at all."