The Sunday Telegraph

Britain has more billionair­es than ever

- By Nicola Harley

BRITAIN has more billionair­es than ever before, according to the new Sunday Times Rich List. The 2017 list, which is in its 29th year, reveals London has a greater number of them than any other city in the world, with 86.

There are now 134 billionair­es in the UK, up from 120 on last year’s list.

The latest individual­s to join the elite billionair­e club are software entreprene­ur Mike Cannon-Brooke and his business partner Scott Farquhar.

Just two years ago, Mr CannonBroo­ke was worth £591million and has almost doubled his wealth since. Brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa, from Blackburn, whose riches come from their petrol station empire also join the billionair­es on the list.

Topping the lot are brothers Sri and Gopi Hinduja, who have been ranked the richest people in Britain.

The pair previously held the title in 2014, but have been in second place for the past two years.

However, this year they have seen their wealth increase by a further £3.2billion to take them to the top of list with a fortune of £16.2billion.

The Hinduja brothers have gained their wealth through property developmen­t and car manufactur­ing. They are presently behind the redevelopm­ent of the old War Office in London’s Whitehall, which they are transformi­ng into a £1billion hotel.

The combined wealth of the top 500 individual­s was £580.4 billion, which is more than the £575.6billion total of all the 1,000 richest people last year.

The total wealth of the top 1,000 has increased by 14 per cent since last year, according to the Rich List. It has risen by £83bn to £658bn.

In 2016 the super-rich suffered their worst fall in fortune since the credit crunch in 2007.

It saw previous title holder Lakshmi Mittal, who topped the list in 2008 with £27.7 billion — the biggest fortune achieved by anyone on the Rich List before or since – lose three-quarters of his wealth and drop to £7.12billion.

This year, singer Adele enters the main list for the first time with a fortune of £125million and becomes the richest musician under 30 in Britain and Ireland.

The Hello singer’s global success has rocketed her wealth to £125million – an increase of almost 50 per cent in the past year alone.

She is the 19th richest musician – and the only solo female artist – in the Music Millionair­es list, which is topped by Sir Paul McCartney, who with wife Nancy Shevell is worth a combined £780 million.

The second highest musician on the list is Andrew Lloyd Webber who boasts £740million with his continued involvemen­t in musical theatre while The Rolling Stones are well represente­d with Sir Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts increasing their collective wealth by £50million.

Harry Potter author JK Rowling is listed as having a £650million fortune – her wealth has grown 10 times since she first entered the list on £65million in 2001.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom