Latest news with #richlist
RNZ News
08-06-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
NBR releases 2025 rich list
The National Business Review has released its 2025 rich list, painting a picture of Aotearoa's rich and powerful. NBR co-editor Hamish McNicol spoke to Corin Dann. Tags: To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
The Guardian
19-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
UK's 50 richest families hold more wealth than 50% of population, analysis finds
The number of billionaires in the UK has grown sharply – from 15 in 1990 to 165 in 2024 – at the same time as inequality in the UK's overall wealth distribution has dramatically increased, analysis has found. Timed to coincide with the Sunday Times' rich list, the Equality Trust's investigation also found that billionaires have become 'ludicrously' more wealthy, with their average wealth skyrocketing by more than 1,000% over the same period. The top 50 richest families in the UK now hold more wealth than the poorest half of the population, comprising more than 34 million people. In 2024, the two richest UK billionaires held more wealth between them than all the billionaires in the 1990 rich list combined. 'Our analysis also shows the vampiric nature of extreme wealth, which is completely incompatible with the health and wellbeing of the nation,' said Priya Sahni-Nicholas, co-executive director of the Equality Trust. 'Property, inheritance and finance account for over half of total billionaire current wealth: sources of wealth creation that are responsible for large-scale planetary and community destruction. 'The obscene growth in wealth of the UK's richest is due to them profiting from society's struggles while causing them additional harm and undermining successive governments' goals of decarbonisation, spreading more wealth and growth out of London, ending the housing crisis, encouraging the growth of new – and frequently greener – industries, and encouraging stronger communities. 'The issue of extreme wealth really is existential; for our very survival we need to get serious about changing economic structures and design policies that end the existence of billionaires.' Julia Davies, a member of Patriotic Millionaires UK, said that inclusion in the rich list should be a mark of shame. 'This process of hoovering up wealth into the hands of ever fewer people is directly harming everyone. These people don't deserve that level of wealth, it just so happens that some people gather an incredible amount of money around them while other people don't, despite educating our kids and keeping our health service going.' Davies said it was wrong to call the wealthy 'job creators'. 'I call them job eradicators because when you consolidate businesses into the hands of ever fewer people, you're wiping out smaller and medium-sized businesses because they cannot compete with chains that undercut them. 'These people also employ such effective tax-management measures that they're paying far lower rates of tax to the local and national economy than working people or small to medium-sized businesses.' It did not have to be this way, she said. 'You can use wealth to accumulate ever more wealth or you can use it to address many of the multiple issues that society is struggling with. 'It's not intrinsic in being wealthy to want to continue to attract ever more wealth to yourself at the expense of society,' she said. 'That's not something that just happens to you when you become wealthy and we shouldn't just accept it. It's a choice.' Fernanda Balata, a political economist at the New Economics Foundation and author of Exploring An Extreme Wealth Line, said that the UK had gone down a route of economic instability while the government had put the super-wealthy above everyone else. That, she said, 'is not by accident.' 'There are so many connections now between the wealthy and the powerful, that it spills over into public institutions,' she said. 'This means politicians today are having to rely increasingly on lies and flawed narratives to keep the system going.' But Balata said there was hope. 'There is broad consensus now that extreme levels of wealth inequalities are causing multiple harms to society.' Balata said that politicians need to start looking at extreme wealth as an issue in itself. 'We need an Extreme Wealth Line: the point at which excessive wealth causes unjustifiable harm,' she said. Dr Benjamin Tippet, a lecturer in economics and wealth inequality at King's College London, has modelled what a 2% tax on those on the rich list would have raised, if the policy had been in place since the mid-90s. 'I discovered that a 2% wealth tax on the tax residents on the rich list would have raised about the equivalent of £6bn per year: £155bn,' he said. 'Invested, that would have been worth about £325bn in today's money – well over £11,000 per household. That's a significant national wealth fund. And even with this tax, the share of wealth of people on the rich list – the top 0.001% – would still have increased.'
Sky News
16-05-2025
- Business
- Sky News
The Sunday Times Rich List: Billionaires fall as King rises to match Rishi Sunak
The King's personal fortune has shot up by £30m to put him on par with Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty, while the overall number of billionaires in the UK has plummeted, according to The Sunday Times Rich List. The 2025 list, published on Friday, shows the King's personal wealth grew from £610m to £640m, taking him up 20 places to 258 - level with former prime minister Mr Sunak and his wife. The number of overall UK billionaires has fallen to 156 from 165 in 2024, marking the biggest drop since the rich list began 37 years ago. Gopi Hinduja and his family, behind the Indian conglomerate Hinduja Group, topped the list for the fourth year running with £35.3bn. Meanwhile, founder and chairman of global chemicals company Ineos Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who became part owner of Manchester United last year, dropped from fourth place to seventh after his reported wealth went from £23.5bn to £17.05bn. Sir Jim's £6.47bn losses marked the biggest on the list, while Russian-born brothers Igor and Dmitry Bukhman, who built a fortune on mobile games such as Gardenscapes and Fishdom, made the biggest gains with nearly £6.2bn. New entries included makeup mogul Charlotte Tilbury with £350m and Ellen DeGeneres, who left the US for the Cotswolds last year. The Sunday Times said the list was one of its toughest to compile due to Donald Trump's tariffs and the subsequent stock market turbulence, adding many from previous years had dropped off the list and others were no longer eligible having fled Britain after Labour's non-dom crackdown. Overall, the combined wealth of those on the list stood at £772.8bn - down 3% from the last list. Speaking to Anna Jones on Sky News Breakfast, Rich List compiler Rob Watts highlighted the story of Tom and Phil Beahon, who own sportswear clothing brand Castore which is now worth £1bn, as one of his favourites. The brothers from Wirral have debuted at joint 345 on the list with an estimated wealth of £350m. Calling their story "inspiring", Mr Watts said: "They dreamed of being sportsmen as lads - one of them got onto the books of Tranmere Rovers and the other played cricket for Lancashire, but their sporting careers were over in their early 20s. "And they say that failure was critical to driving them to create this £1bn sports kit business that you'll now see being worn by the England cricket team and the England rugby team." The top 20: 1. Gopi Hinduja and family - £35.3bn 2. David and Simon Reuben and family - £26.87bn 3. Sir Leonard Blavatnik - £25.73bn 4. Sir James Dyson and family - £20.8bn 5. Idan Ofer - £20.12bn 6. Guy, George, Alannah and Galen Weston and family - £17.75bn 7. Sir Jim Ratcliffe - £17.05bn 8. Lakshmi Mittal and family - £15.44bn 9. John Fredriksen and family - £13.68bn 10. Igor and Dmitry Bukhman - £12.54bn 11. Kirsten and Jorn Rausing - £12.51bn 12. Michael Platt - £12.5bn 13. Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken and Michel de Carvalho - £10.09bn 14. Duke of Westminster and the Grosvenor family - £9.88bn 15. Lord Bamford and family - £9.45bn 16. Denise, John and Peter Coates - £9.44bn 17. Carrie and Francois Perrodo and family - £9.3bn 18. Barnaby and Merlin Swire and family - £9.25bn 19. Marit, Lisbet, Sigrid and Hans Rausing - £9.09bn 20. Alex Gerko - £8.75bn
BBC News
16-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Barclay absent for second year as Gordon family tops rich list
Whisky magnate Glenn Gordon and his family are the wealthiest people in the Channel Islands, according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List, while Sir Frederick Barclay is not included for a second Gordon, who runs William Grant & Sons, is worth £6.39bn with his family, according to the list, an increase of £779m from Jersey-based businessman tops the list for the second year running, in the absence of Sark's Sir Frederick, who has not appeared on the list since Frederick topped the list in 2023 with £6.4bn but was not included last year due to a lack of data to estimate his wealth. No information was given as to why Sir Frederick was not included in the list for Rich List reveals the wealth of the 350 richest people in the British Isles in Chris and Sarah Dawson, of retail stores The Range and Wilko, are second on the list for the Channel Islands and are worth £ third place is Jersey-based co-founder of Moneysupermarket Simon Nixon, with a worth of £ richest family are Douglas and Dame Mary Perkins of Specsavers - in fourth place for the islands overall - with a total wealth of £ financier and Bristol City FC shareholder Steve Lansdown is fifth on the list and is worth £1.25bn. How much are they worth? 1. Glenn Gordon and family (£6.398bn, up £779m) 29th nationally2. Chris and Sarah Dawson (£2.6bn, up £100m) 64th nationally3. Simon Nixon (£1.95bn, up £70m) 86th nationally4. Douglas and Dame Mary Perkins (£1.539bn, down £48m) 107th nationally5. Steve Lansdown (£1.25bn, up £82m) 127th nationally The Rich List for 2025 saw the sharpest decline in UK billionaires in the guide's 37-year history, from 165 in 2024 to156 this number of billionaires dropped for the third consecutive combined wealth of the UK's richest people is more than £772bn - a sum larger than the annual GDP of compiler of the list, Robert Watts, said the people included on the list were changing. "Our billionaire count is down and the combined wealth of those who feature in our research is falling," he said. "We are also finding fewer of the world's super rich are coming to live in the UK."He added: "Our research continues to find a wide variety of self-made entrepreneurs building fortunes not just from artificial intelligence, video games and new technologies but also mundane, everyday items such as makeup, radiators and jogging bottoms."
The Guardian
16-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
King Charles's wealth swells to match Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murty on UK rich list
King Charles's personal fortune increased to £640m in the past year, making him as wealthy as the former prime minister Rishi Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murty, according to the Sunday Times rich list. The 76-year-old monarch, who acceded to the throne in 2022, saw a £30m increase in wealth and ranks joint 238th in the list of the UK's wealthiest people and families. The estimate of the king's wealth is based on personal assets, including the investment portfolio he inherited from his late mother and private estates at Sandringham and Balmoral, and does not include the crown estate. Charles is now estimated to be worth considerably more than the late Queen Elizabeth II, whose wealth was estimated at £370m in 2022. However, an investigation by the Guardian in 2023 estimated that King Charles's fortune could be almost £2bn. That includes cars, rare stamps, property, investments, horses, jewellery, art and a hereditary estate The wealth of Sunak and his wife has fallen £11m to £640m. Since leaving Downing Street, Sunak has taken a part-time role at Stanford University, signed up to the Washington Speakers Bureau and the couple have launched a charity dedicated to improving numeracy. However, it is Murty who accounts for most of the couple's wealth. She has a stake in Infosys, the IT firm co-founded by her billionaire father. The list of the UK's 350 richest individuals and families also reveals the impact of the government's tax crackdown on non-domiciles. In April, the Labour government abolished the non-dom tax status, which is where UK residents whose permanent home or domicile for tax purposes is outside the UK. There was the biggest fall in billionaires residing in the UK in the 37-year history of the publication of the annual rich list. According to the list, there are 156 UK-based billionaires, down from 165 last year, marking the third year in a row the number has fallen. The biggest drop in wealth was felt by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the founder of Ineos and a part-owner of Manchester United, who saw his fortune fall by about £6bn. Ratcliffe is ranked as the seventh richest person in the UK, with a wealth of about £17bn. 'Our billionaire count is down and the combined wealth of those who feature in our research is falling,' said Robert Watts, the compiler of the rich list. 'We are also finding fewer of the world's super-rich are coming to live in the UK.' Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion Watts said he was struck by the level of criticism levelled at the government by the wealthy individuals he spoke to compiling the list. 'We expected the abolition of non-dom status would anger affluent people from overseas,' he said. 'But homegrown young tech entrepreneurs and those running centuries-old family firms are also warning of serious consequences.' Gopi Hinduja and his family, who own the Hinduja Group conglomerate, remain Britain's wealthiest family, with an estimated fortune of £35.3bn. David and Simon Reuben, the real estate moguls and co-owners of Newcastle United, moved up to second, increasing their wealth to £26.9bn, followed by Sir Leonard Blavatnik, the owner of Warner Music and the streaming service Dazn, whose fortune dropped by £3.5bn to £25.7bn. Other high-profile individuals to appear on the list include singers Elton John and Mick Jagger, Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton, the fil- maker Christopher Nolan and David and Victoria Beckham. Overall, the wealth of the 350 individuals and families on the list dropped 3% year on year to £772.8bn. The turmoil in stock markets caused by Donald Trump's tariff war had affected those whose wealth was linked to listed companies, the Sunday Times said. The High Pay Centre said that the drop in the number of billionaires, and the dip in overall wealth, does not change the long-term trend of the level of wealth controlled by a small minority. 'The rich list is a useful annual reminder of the inefficiency of the UK economy,' said Luke Hildyard, executive director at the organisation. 'It shows a small fall in the value of oligarch assets this year, but over a longer period it illustrates how a tiny handful of very rich people have captured an increasing share of the country's wealth.'
