THE number of dollar billionaires in the world has more than doubled to 1,645 since the financial crisis of 2008, according to a new report which warned that inequality between rich and poor is spiralling out of control.

Despite the austerity affecting ordinary people around the globe in the wake of the recession, the richest 85 billionaires saw their fortunes increase by a total of around £150 billion over the past year - the equivalent of £415 million a day or almost a third of a million pounds a minute, the report by development charity Oxfam found.

Research earlier this year found that these 85 people had access to wealth equal to that of half the world's population.

If the world's billionaires were taxed at a rate of just 1.5 per cent on their wealth over 1 billion US dollars, it would raise £46 billion a year - enough to get every child into school and deliver health services in all of the world's poorest countries -said the report, entitled Even it Up: Time To End Extreme Inequality.

Oxfam's chief executive Mark Goldring said: "Inequality is one of the defining problems of our age. In a world where hundreds of millions of people are living without access to clean drinking water and without enough food to feed their families, a small elite have more money than they could spend in several lifetimes.

"The consequences of extreme inequality are harmful to everyone. It robs millions of people of better life chances and fuels crime, corruption and even violent conflict".