A lost decade for UK equity income? What lost decade?

Returns from the UK equity market have come in for some heavy criticism recently, but experienced investor Graham Ashby argues returns over the last decade show it has been far from a poor choice for investors.

It has become increasingly fashionable to moan about the return recently achieved from investing in the UK equity market, with the FTSE 100 index still approximately 7% below its 2007 peak. However, take into account the reinvestment of dividend income, and a very different picture emerges. For example, despite the huge volatility in share prices caused by the economic turmoil in Continental Europe, the total return from the FTSE All Share during 2012 was +12.6%, and over the past three years has been +7.9% pa. Even incorporating the worst of the impact of the credit crunch, the an...