Most of the income gain benefitted the top 5 per cent of earners.

Although still at record highs, rents have in fact stalled relative to income gains over the past year.

It has eschewed the route taken by most universities of applying the standard tuition fee and then redistributing much of the extra income gained through a bursary scheme.

Household income changes over the course of time, with income gains being substantially larger for the upper, than for the lower, percentiles.

The post-recession income gains have been very uneven, with the top 1 percent capturing 95 percent of the income gains from 2009 to 2012.