UK's Wealthy Hit By Economic Woes As Revealed In New Rich List

Tom Burroughes

27 April 2009

The global recession has wiped £155 billion ($226 billion) from the fortunes of Britain’s richest 1,000 people, equivalent to more than a third of their wealth, according to the annual Sunday Times Rich List, published yesterday.

The unprecedented collapse is the biggest annual fall since it was first compiled 21 years ago, the newspaper said.

The number of billioniaries in this year’s Rich List has fallen from 75 to 43. Between them, people ranked in the top 100 lost £92 billion. Only three saw their wealth increase.

The data fits with the recently-released Forbes’ annual list of the world’s billionaires, revealing a sharp drop in the value of their investable wealth, with heavy reductions in regions such as India.

The wealth management industry last week warned that the UK government’s budget, which saw a controversial new, higher tax band of 50 per cent on people earning £150,000 year or more, will encourage an exodus of wealthy people from the UK, as well as cut, rather than increase, overall revenues.

The Rich List’s biggest loser, Lakshmi Mittal, has seen £16.9 billion evaporate from the collapse of the world steel market this year. Now worth £10.8 billion, Mr Mittal remains the richest person in Britain.

He has sustained losses of more than three times the level of Roman Abramovich, his nearest rival in the downshifting stakes, who was down £4.7 billion. The Russian’s surviving £7 billion makes him the second richest person in the UK.

The Duke of Westminster is the richest Briton and continues to occupy third position overall with a fortune of £6.5 billion. The duke’s property assets, centred on Mayfair and Belgravia in London, have shrunk more slowly than others, losing £500 million in value. Thirty-eight people in the Rich List have lost in excess of this amount.

While some billionaires have slipped into mere millionaire status, others have disappeared from the list altogether. Sir Tom Hunter, worth £1.05 billion last year, has seen his investments in housebuilding, garden centres and retail turn sour. Coupled with his pledge to give his fortune away — he has donated £23.3 million in the past year — Hunter no longer makes the Rich List.

Over the past five years the bottom line required for a place in the Rich List has risen from £30 million in 2003 to £80 million last year. Now a fortune of £55 million is sufficient to make the top 1,000.

The Rich List’s combined wealth adds up to £258.27 billion, compared with £412.8 billion last year.