'Assetocrats' have replaced aristocrats in the House of Lords, Birmingham study finds

The House of Lords is now dominated by a new elite of the wealthy, with hundreds of peers holding large shareholdings and company directorships, according to the most comprehensive study of the upper chamber in more than a decade, by a University of Birmingham researcher.

Dr Huw Macartney, Associate Professor of Political Economy at the University of Birmingham, has published his findings in a new book, The Assetocracy: Wealth, Power and Elitism in the House of Lords.

Two years of research

Over two years, Dr Macartney and a team of graduate researchers studied the financial and political activities of more than 800 members of the Lords. They compiled what is believed to be the largest available collection of information on peers' shareholdings, company directorships, property, education, attendance, speeches and voting.

The findings come in the same year that hereditary peers were removed from the chamber to modernise it and make it more representative.

What the study found

More than 260 life peers, around 38 per cent, hold individual shareholdings each worth more than £100,000. Financial companies account for about 26 per cent of the shareholdings identified. Around 250 peers hold company directorships, and 14 appear on the Sunday Times Rich List.

The number of company directorships held by peers roughly doubled after they joined the Lords, from about 400 to nearly 800.

The research also found a small but statistically significant link between greater wealth and lower participation: the richer the peer, the less likely they were to attend and take part.

"Even though hereditary peers have now been removed from the House of Lords, our findings show that this has done little to fix a huge wealth and status gap between peers and the public," Dr Macartney said.

"The upper chamber is increasingly disconnected from the British public and unrepresentative of their everyday economic and social experiences."

"Assetocrats"

According to the study, peers with substantial shareholdings are mostly associated with the Conservative Party, with many appointed since 2010. "Aristocrats have been replaced with 'assetocrats'," Dr Macartney said.

Peers must declare their financial interests in the Register of Interests, but the study argues that current rules often reveal little about the overall scale of a peer's wealth or income.

"The Register of Interests is publicly available, but the depth and implications of this information have rarely been examined systematically," Dr Macartney said.

Birmingham research in the national debate

The study comes amid a wider debate about the role, make-up and accountability of the second chamber. It adds research from Birmingham to that national conversation about how laws are made, and by whom.