Poor little things! UK’s super-rich lose billions

But women are storming up list of mega-wealthy

THE fortunes of Britain’s billionaires have plummeted in the past year amid a slump in oil prices, fickle stock markets and the steel crisis, it emerged yesterday.

It is the biggest blow to the wealth of the super-rich since the banking collapse, with some seeing their assets fall by up to three quarters.

But while UK-based oil tycoons have experienced a torrid year, more women than ever have joined the ranks of the country’s wealthiest people. A record 125 women are among the top 1,000, including the Queen whose fortune remains at £340million.

The findings are revealed in this year’s Sunday Times Rich List, which showed a slowing in the fortunes of the super-rich for the first time in six years. After a huge increase in British billionaires since 2010, only three new members of the elite club were created in the past year.

Those hit hardest include Britain’s former richest man Lakshmi Mittal, whose family fortune sat at £27.7billion in 2008. The Indian steel magnate, 65, has seen his assets slump by £2.08billion to £7.12billion after his company ArcelorMittal suffered losses of £5.5billion.

Last year’s richest man Len Blavatnik was also hit with a sizeable blow to his business portfolio, which includes interests in commodities such as coal and aluminium. The Ukrainian-born magnate, who owns Warner Music, suffered a £1.58billion decrease in the value of his assets, taking his fortune to £11.59billion and leaving him as the country’s third richest person.

Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich, whose wealth was built from investments in Russia’s oil industry, saw his wealth fall by £890million. But the oligarch still has a fortune of £6.4billion.

Fellow football investor Alisher Usmanov, who became the second biggest stakeholder in Arsenal football club using his steel and iron fortune, also endured a year of losses. The 62-year-old Ukrainian’s wealth totals £7.58billion after sliding by £2.22billion, almost 25 per cent. Another ten billionaires from the 2015 list – including steel tycoon Lord Paul and Matalan founder John Hargreaves – are no longer among the elite group.

Britain’s remaining 120 billionaires, including Richard Branson, Topshop boss Sir Philip Green and Sir James Dyson, are collectively worth £343,943billion – almost £350trillion. The figure is only a slight increase on last year.

The amount of money required to secure a place among the wealthiest 1,000 also slowed for the first time in several years. Around £103million was required to be on this year’s list, up from £100million in 2015. It was only £45million in 2009.

At the top this year are Indianborn brothers David and Simon Reuben, who moved to the UK in the 1950s and attended state schools. Having made huge amounts of money in the aluminium industry, the siblings turned their attention to London property.

The owners of Millbank Tower and John Lewis’s head office are worth £13.1billion, having seen their assets rise in value by £3.4billion over the past year. The average Briton on a salary of £27,500 would have to work for about 476,360 years to make the same amount.

Indian-born brothers Sri and Gopi Hinduja, worth £13billion, are in second place. The pensioners are behind plans to turn the War Office in Whitehall into a £1billion hotel.

New entries include actor and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen and his wife Isla Fisher, and Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton.

While the number of female entries is at its highest ever level, most inherited money or are involved in ventures with family members.