The council house billionaire
Fired from his first job, £21billion joiner’s son is top of Britain’s rich list
A BUSINESSMAN raised on a council estate and fired from his first job after three days is now Britain’s richest man with a £21billion fortune.
Jim Ratcliffe, chief executive of chemicals giant Ineos, topped the Sunday Times Rich List, which is dominated by self-made tycoons.
The 65-year-old son of a joiner shot to the top spot from 18th after his wealth leapt £15.3billion in one year.
But others did not fare so well, with high-profile losers including Arcadia boss Sir Philip Green, who saw his fortune plummet by £787million, and disgraced WPP founder Sir Martin Sorrell, whose worth fell £39million. And celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, 42, dropped out of the rich h list completely.
New additions included James Bond actor Daniel Craig, 50, and his actress wife Rachel Weisz, 48, who have a combined fortune of £125million.
There are 141 women in the top 1,000, compared with nine in the top 200 when the list began in 1989.
Mr Ratcliffe, whose early years were spent in a council house in Failsworth, near Manchester, was fired from his first job – at fuel giant BP – because his medical form revealed he had mild eczema.
He founded his first business weeks before his 40th birthday and Ineos aged 45 – 20 years later he is the first British industrialist to top the rich list. The richest woman, at number six, is Charlene de Carvalho- Heineken of the brewing dynasty, who pushed ex- Miss UK Kirsty Bertarelli off the top spot.
The 63-year-old and her financier husband Michel de Carvalho – vice chairman of Citigroup – increased their wealth by almost 20 per cent over the past year to £11.1billion.
Meanwhile, Mrs Bertarelli and her financier husband Ernesto saw the biggest decrease in wealth, losing
‘From humble backgrounds’
£1.48billion due to falls in pharmaceutical company stakes. The couple are now 11th.
Perhaps the biggest transformation is that 94 per cent of those on the list built their own fortunes. Second place were the Hinduja brothers, Sri and Gopi, worth £20.64billion.
Their fortune jumped by £4.44billion, with their Indiabased car manufacturer Ashok Leyland and Mumbai-based IndusInd Bank having a particularly successful year.
British-US investor Sir Len Blavatnik, who owns Warner Music Group, came third with £15.26billion. The 60-year-old, who was born in Ukraine, recently donated £50million for the Tate Modern’s new wing.
Hugh Grosvenor – the Duke of Westminster – is still the UK’s youngest billionaire at the age of 27, inheriting his fortune on his father’s death two years ago. His property empire is worth £9.96billion.
Robert Watts, who compiled the list, said: ‘We’re seeing more people from humble backgrounds, who struggled at school or who didn’t even start their businesses until well into middle age.’
Of the 1,000 named in the list, 145 are billionaires – and 93 of them live in London.
In a separate list of political donations, there was just one to Labour among the 50 biggest. The donor, Jim Milne of Balmoral Group, also gave cash to the Tories and Lib Dems.