Rich list: Richard Branson and Rishi Sunak see fortunes shrink – but who are the wealthiest Brits now?
The billionaire Hinduja family have topped the Sunday Times Rich List for the second year in a row as their fortune jumped by more than £6 billion.
Gopi Hinduja and his family, which is behind the Indian conglomerate Hinduja Group, were named as Britain’s richest just days after Mr Hinduja’s brother Sri died.
For the first time in 14 years the number of billionaires on the list fell, by six to 171.
But those who stayed in the billionaires’ club still saw their wealth grow, by close to £31 billion.
These are the 20 richest people and families in the UK, according to the Rich List:
1. Gopi Hinduja and family – £35 billion
2. Sir Jim Ratcliffe – £29.7 billion
3. Sir Leonard Blavatnik – £28.6 billion
4. David and Simon Reuben and family – £24.4 billion
5. Sir James Dyson and family – £23 billion
6. Lakshmi Mittal and family – £16 billion
7. Guy, George, Alannah and Galen Weston and family – £14.5 billion
8. Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken and Michel de Carvalho – £13.1 billion
9. Kirsten and Jorn Rausing – £12 billion
10. Michael Platt – £11.5 billion
11. The Duke of Westminster and the Grosvenor family – £9.9 billion
12. Marit, Lisbet, Sigrid and Hans Rausing – £9.3 billion
13. Andy Currie – £9.2 billion
14. John Reece – £9.1 billion
15. Alex Gerko – £9.1 billion
16. Denise, John and Peter Coates and family – £8.8 billion
17. Anders Holch Povlsen £8.5 billion
18. Barnaby and Merlin Swire and family – £8.4 billion
19. John Fredriksen and family – £8.3 billion
20. Mikhail Fridman – £8.2 billion
Rishi Sunak loses staggering £200m
The personal fortune of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty has fallen by more than £200 million over the last year as the value of her stake in her father’s company plummeted.
The couple’s wealth is estimated at around £529 million in the latest Sunday Times Rich List, a fall from £730 million a year earlier.
Ms Murty owns a small stake in Infosys, a 64 billion dollar (£52 billion) Indian IT giant co-founded by her billionaire father.
Her stake is just under 1% of the business, but the company shares have lost around a fifth of their value in the last year as investors worried about the future of the Indian technology sector.
The power couple first entered the Sunday Times Rich List last year when Mr Sunak was still chancellor in Boris Johnson’s government.
When running to be Prime Minister his standing was dented by scrutiny of his family’s financial affairs and large wealth.
The 2023 Rich List, released on Friday, also catapulted chemicals billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe into second place.
It makes him the second-richest person on the list, but the increase was largely due to “new information about his finances” rather than a change in his financial position, the list’s compilers said.
There were 171 billionaires in the UK this year, which six fewer than last year, but their combined wealth has risen by £30.7 billion to £683.9 billion.
The list also showed that the Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson lost £1.8 billion last year, pushing him and his family down to 44th place with £4.2 billion.
Robert Watts, the list’s compiler, said: “This year’s Sunday Times Rich List shows a golden period for the super rich is over. For the first time in 14 years we’ve seen the number of UK billionaires fall.
“Two years ago we raised concerns about an unsettling boom in the fortunes of the very wealthy that continued unchecked during the political instability around Brexit and the pandemic.
“This is not a crash, but there are household names who have lost vast sums over the past year.
“The bursting of the tech bubble, the end of rock bottom interests and the jitters creeping through the banking industry have all taken their toll.
“The super rich don’t exist in a vacuum. Many small investors lost money in some of their overblown stock market floats.
“Many people also work for their businesses. Financial losses for billionaires can have implications for us all.”
PA – August Graham
Sir Richard Branson’s wealth shrinks by £1.8bn
Sir Richard Branson has seen his fortune shrink by more than 40% in a year after revealing his Virgin empire suffered big losses during the pandemic.
Sir Richard’s wealth has dropped by £1.79 billion since last year, the list revealed.
He told the BBC’s Amol Rajan that the pandemic “cost us a big percentage of our net worth, maybe £1.5 billion.
“There was a time where it really looked like we were going to lose everything”, he said.
The Sunday Times said last year that Sir Richard and his family were worth about £4.2 billion, placing him 44th on the list.
The businessman, who resides on a private island in the Caribbean, featured 77th on the list this year with a net worth of £2.41 billion.
Virgin Group, which includes airline Virgin Atlantic, gym group Virgin Active and bank Virgin Money, suffered a hit when Covid struck in early 2020.
Sir Richard faced criticism when he asked for a commercial loan from the Government at the height of the virus in a bid to keep his airline afloat.
He insisted he did not have billions in “cash in a bank account ready to withdraw” to save the business and tens of thousands of staff.
Virgin Atlantic eventually secured a £1.2 billion bailout involving only private funds, including £200 million from the wider Virgin Group.
The troubles continued for his empire with Virgin Orbit filing for bankruptcy earlier this month and axing 675 jobs – about 85% of its workforce.
It came after a rocket failed to complete the first satellite launch from UK soil in January.
PA – Anna Wise
Adele, Harry Styles and Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran, Adele and Harry Styles are among the UK’s wealthiest people under the age of 35, according to the 2023 Sunday Times 35 under 35 Rich List.
All three musicians were listed as having wealth higher than £150 million after seeing success in both the UK and the US.
Sheeran and Adele both claim spots in the top 10 of the under-35 list – Sheeran, 32, in seventh place with an estimated wealth of £300 million.
It comes following the release of his sixth studio album which became the UK’s fastest selling album of 2023.
Adele, who is now 35, is in ninth place with her wealth estimated as £165 million.
Earlier this year the singer announced an extension of her Las Vegas residency in Nevada, which had previously run from November 2022 to March 2023.
New dates of the high-budget show are due to take place at the Caesar’s Palace Hotel and Casino from June 16 until November 4 2023.
Styles has also seen a run of success in the US with sold out tour dates across the country, including major venues such as Madison Square Garden in New York and the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California.
According to The Sunday Times, the 29-year-old’s wealth is £150 million, putting him in 13th place.
Two of Styles’ former One Direction bandmates, Niall Horan, 29, and Louis Tomlinson, 31, also made the 35 under 35 Rich List.
The pair were joint 29th on the list, both with wealth estimated at £54 million.
Fellow pop superstar Dua Lipa, 27, claimed the number 21 spot on the list with an estimated wealth of £75 million compiled through music, modelling and podcasting.
Elsewhere, Harry Potter co-stars Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, both 33, featured on the list.
Radcliffe placed 18th on the list with his worth placed at £92 million, with Watson listed as £60 million through film, drink and her investment firm Hestia Hebe.
Model and actress Cara Delevingne claimed the 33rd spot on the list with an estimated wealth of £50 million.
Press Association – Mike Bedigan