As the Sunday Times prepares to publish its largest rich list this Sunday, The Duke of Westminster remains Britain’s, and the Northwest’s, wealthiest.
The Duke’s £700m gain in the wealth stakes is recognised in this year’s Sunday Times Rich List, which is published in a special 116-page edition of The Sunday Times Magazine on May 18.
He heads a list of the 20 richest in the region who are worth £24.86billion collectively and constitute the greatest concentration of billionaires outside the capital. No fewer than seven families living or with their businesses based in the region have achieved billionaire status this year. Westminster’s wealth is centred on Mayfair and Belgravia in London, but his family seat is at Eaton Hall, in Cheshire, and he owns significant parts of Liverpool city centre. Assets in his Grosvenor Group property operation increased to nearly £3.5billion in 2012.
Second in the list is John Whittaker and family, the people behind the Peel empire and now at the age of seventy two, a resident of the Isle of Man and head of one of the United Kingdom’s largest property, media and infrastructure investment companies.
Tom Morris and family see their wealth top £2billion this year off the back of the continued success of his Home Bargains chain of discount stores. The TJ Morris parent company is worth £2billion and the Morris family see their wealth rise by £830m in the year.
The Arora brothers, Simon, Bobby and Robin, have also seen huge gains of £300m in the past 12 months through B&M Retail, their discount chain. The brothers are now worth £1.4billion and are planning a flotation of the business.
Sir Paul McCartney makes the top 10 of the Northwest Rich List, worth £710m alongside his third wife Nancy Shevell. Her £150m wealth comes from her father’s American trucking operation, while Macca continues to amass his fortune through an extensive touring schedule that last year featured 32 dates as part of his Out There tour. Income from the Beatles, who started out in Liverpool, continues to flow more than 50 years after they took the musical world by storm.
The 26th annual Sunday Times Rich List is published on May 18 in a special 116-page issue of The Sunday Times Magazine, which profiles the 1,000 richest individuals and families in the UK and the wealthiest 250 in Ireland.
The list is based on identifiable wealth, including land, property, other assets such as art and racehorses, or significant shares in publicly quoted companies. It excludes bank accounts, to which the paper has no access.
The Sunday Times Rich List 2014 is compiled by Philip Beresford, the leading authority on British wealth, and edited by Ian Coxon.
