Over the past year, some of Britain’s wealthiest people have lost their rankings due to the financial crisis. This has dramatically shifted the outcome of the Kingdom’s top 10, and the number of billionaires has risen at its slowest pace since that time. This was shown when the UK’s Sunday Times released their annual rich list of Britain’s 1 000 wealthiest people.
It was those who built their wealth on commodities such as oil and steel who suffered the most, seeing their fortunes plummet as “multi-billion pound falls as rock-bottom prices ate into their personal assets”.
Those coming out on top were property tycoons – which is no surprise since most locations in Britain cost an arm and leg in global terms. The Guardian reports:
Sibling property investors David and Simon Reuben, who made their first fortune purchasing Russian aluminium before buying up large tracts of London’s landmark buildings, reached the summit of the annual Sunday Times rich list of Britain’s 1,000 wealthiest people with a combined fortune of £13.1bn, after climbing four places in a year.
But the list of 1 000 wealthiest Brits included some spectacular rises, such as Sir James Dyson who invented the bagless vacuum cleaner.
The best part of the list is that The Queen dropped 17 places to equal Simon Cowell at 319th place. Hilarious.
New entries included Baron-Cohen, who made his name with his Ali G character and this year released Grimsby, his first film in a decade. Together with his wife, the former soap opera star Isla Fisher, the 44-year-old is worth £105m, putting him 936th in Britain.
Lewis Hamilton was another new entry and Britain’s richest sportsman with a fortune of £106m.
Pop star Adele saw her personal worth soar by £35m to £85m, while there was no surprise that the wealthiest band were One Direction, worth a combined £132m.
You think you could one day be on that list? We wish you luck. In the mean time, check out your competition: Here are Britain’s top 10 wealthiest people, including their previous spots in brackets:
1 (5) David and Simon Reuben £13.1bn (up £3.4bn) Property, internet
2 (2) Sri and Gopi Hinduja £13bn Industry and finance
3 (1) Len Blavatnik £11.6bn (down £1.58bn) Music, media and investment
4 (3) Galen and George Weston and family £11bn Retailing
5 (6) Ernesto and Kirsty Bertarelli £9.78bn (up £330m) Pharmaceuticals
6 (9) The Duke of Westminster £9.35bn (up £790m) Property
7 (12) Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken and Michel de Carvalho £9.15bn (up £2bn) Inheritance
8 (8) Kirsten and Jorn Rausing £8.7bn Inheritance, investment
9 (14) Hans Rausing and family £8.6bn (up £2.2bn) Packaging
10 (4) Alisher Usmanov £7.58bn (down £2.22bn) Investment
[source: theguardian]
