The number of UK billionaires has fallen while King Charles’ personal wealth has jumped to equal former prime minister Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty, according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List.
The annual list of the UK’s 350 richest people revealed the biggest decline in billionaires in the paper’s history.
Meanwhile in the past year, the King’s wealth has grown by £30m to £640m, increasing his rank 20 places to 238 with Sunak and Murty.
Topping the list for the fourth consecutive year is the Hinduja family behind the Indian corporation Hinduja Group, which, despite a decline in fortune, is recorded to be worth more than £35bn.
The number of billionaires slid to 156 this year from 165 in 2024, representing the sharpest decline in the Sunday Times Rich List’s 37-year-history.
“Our billionaire count is down and the combined wealth of those who feature in our research is falling,” Robert Watts, compiler of the Rich List told PA Media.
Who are the richest people in the UK?
1. Gopi Hinduja and family (£35.3bn, down from £37.2bn)
2. David and Simon Reuben and family (£26.87bn)
3. Sir Leonard Blavatnik (£25.73bn)
4. Sir James Dyson and family (£20.8bn)
5. Idan Ofer (£20.12bn)
Coming in second after the Hinduja family, at almost £27bn, were the Reuben brothers, who made their fortune through property and technology.
A close third was Sir Leonard Blavatnik, a Ukrainian born British-American businessman who built up a sizeable net worth of almost £26bn.
Seeing the biggest fall in fortune this year was Manchester United part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
His wealth has dropped by £6.473bn – more than a quarter of his fortune – in the last year.
It now sits at £17.046bn from £23.519bn, pushing him from fourth to seventh on the list.
Among other notable figures to make the list were Formula One champion Sir Lewis Hamilton, David and Victoria Beckham, and Sir Elton John.
Dua Lipa, 29, was the youngest person to be included on the sub-list of the richest Britons aged under 40. She was raked at 34, with an estimated wealth of £115m.
Harry Styles, 31, was listed at 22 with a fortune of £225m. Ed Sheeran, 34, was at number 13 with £370m.
The King’s rise in wealth has also made him richer than his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
The new figures estimate Charles to be worth £270m more than his mother, with the majority of his fortune benefiting from the investment portfolio he inherited from her.
The late Queen was said to be worth £370m in 2022 compared to Charles’ current fortune of £640m.
He did not pay inheritance tax on the fortune she left, due to an exemption. This would have charged a standard of 40% on assets above a threshold.
Money is also earned from the private estate the Duchy of Lancaster. It covers more than 18,000 hectares of land in areas such as Lancashire and Yorkshire, as well as property in central London.
Worth £654m, it generates about £20m a year in profits.
Mr Watts said researchers found that fewer “of the world’s super rich are coming to live in the UK.”
He said he was “struck by the strength of criticism for Rachel Reeves’s Treasury” when speaking to wealthy individuals for the publication.
He said: “We expected the abolition of non-dom status would anger affluent people from overseas.
The Labour government abolished the non-dom tax status in April, which is where UK residents whose permanent home or domicile is outside the UK for tax purposes.
Instead, they now face the new foreign income and gains regime, which provides tax relief on foreign income and gains for people in their first four years of tax residence.
It only applies if they have not been a tax resident in the UK in any of the 10 consecutive years prior to their arrival.
Last year, former Conservative chancellor Jeremy Hunt revealed plans to scrap the tax status before successor Rachel Reeves sped up the process.
The government expects the package of measures to raise £12.7bn over the next five years. US President Donald Trump’s global tariffs, announced in April, have also had an impact.
The announcement saw the stock markets plummet immediately afterwards, with turbulence continuing since and businesses facing higher prices in the US.
The International Monetary Fund has said in its recent forecast for the world economy that global share prices dropped “as trade tensions flared” and warned about an “erosion of trust” between countries.
By BBC News
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