The judgment follows a legal battle between wealthy equity analyst Mr Lawrence, 47, and the actor, 54, who despite entering the relationship with assets of just £40,000, was awarded £1.7m of the couple's £4m assets, in part because of his contribution to maintaining a "lovely home".
"Builders' focus on wealthier, equity rich and credit-worthy buyers since the credit crunch means that a disproportionate amount of stock is being delivered at what we call 'new prime' levels," Savills said.
Now, a union-led campaign against wealthy private equity firms is going global.
But critics led by the trade unions lobbied the chancellor to abolish taper relief which enabled wealthy private equity partners, among others, to pay less tax.
Congress could raise $28 billion over the next decade just by closing the loophole that allows wealthy private equity and hedge fund managers to pay a lower rate of tax than most other Americans.
The sudden interest on Capitol Hill in increasing taxes on wealthy private equity and hedge fund operators is already running into a storm of opposition from the firms potentially affected and from other lawmakers closely associated with Wall Street.
For decades, the carried interest provision has enabled wealthy private equity managers, hedge fund managers and real estate investors to pay the lower capital gains rate (20percentt, not counting the Obama health care surcharge of 3.8percentt) on their income rather than the rate on ordinary income (a maximum of 39.6percentt).
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal editorialists have long boosted the for-profit college sector, especially as big banks like Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo, and wealthy private equity firms took major ownership stakes.
The SEIU, and other critics, point out that many wealthy private equity investors pay taxes at lower rates (because the majority of their income is derived from carried interest, payments received from the profits on a private equity fund's investments) than many of the rank and file employees of a private equity firm's portfolio companies.
One way to help pay for the aid would be to close the tax loophole that lets the nation's wealthiest private equity partners pay tax at close to the lowest rate in the code.
Mr. Abramoff had come to Manhattan to roll out his rehabilitative media campaign, and with a dozen friends and colleagues — among them his lawyer; his publicist; his literary agent; and the evening's host, a wealthy Israeli equities investor — he now sat to watch himself on "60 Minutes," his debut interview since getting out of prison last December.
