The Brexit Boom has blasted the wealth of Britain’s super rich into a new orbit as more billionaires report they have earned even more money.
The Sunday Times Rich List analyses the fortunes of the country’s highest earners each year – and for 2016 found the joint wealth of the richest 1,000 people soared 14% to £658 billion.
The number of billionaires surged too, with a record 134 listed.
And the entry bar to join the top table of the nation’s richest glitterati has jumped from £15 million in 1997 to an astonishing £110 million.
Sitting at the head of the British rich list are Srichand Hinduja, 81, and his brother Gopichand, 77, with a £16.2 billion fortune. The money is generated by their Hinduja conglomerate, which spans interests in the media, property, energy and financial services.
Share values soar
Some familiar names that have floated around the top of the list for some years are still on the leaderboard.
Len Blavatnik takes second place with £15.98 billion. His businesses include the Warner Music Group.
Last year’s wealthiest individuals, David Reuben, 78, and brother Simon, 76, slipped to third position with a joint net worth of £14 billion despite increasing their cash pile by £900 million.
“A buoyant stock market usually drives the wealth of rich listers higher, and since last June equities have soared.
“We’re seeing more and more diversity in the composition of the list, with more women, more people from ethnic backgrounds, and more from surprising walks of life, like egg farmers and pet food makers lining up with hedge fund managers and private equity barons.”
Who is world’s richest man?
But even added together, their wealth plunges into insignificance when compared to that of the world’s richest, also recently published by US financial magazine Forbes.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates has is top again – for the fourth year running and for 18 of the past 23 years.
He has amassed personal wealth of £66 billion – up from £57 billion last year.
Share picker and industrialist Warren Buffett saw his fortunes surge by £11.4 billion to £57.7 billion.
Technology also boosted the fortunes of Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos. He had a good year by anyone’s standards, picking up £20 billion extra to take him to a total of £56 billion and moved into third place.
