Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.
The number of British billionaires has fallen, as the super-rich are hit by stock market turbulence and the end of tax breaks for non-doms.
TheSundayTimes’sannual totting-up of Britain’s richest people, just published shows that the number of billionaires slid to 156 this year from 165 in 2024. That’s the sharpest decline inthe Rich List’s37-year-history.
TheSundayTimesreports that “falling fortunes” have led many to drop off the list, while others are no longer eligible, having “fled Britain after Labour’s non-dom crackdown”.
Robert Watts, compiler of theRichList, says:
In March 2024, then-chancellorJeremyHuntannounced plans to axe the UK’s tax breaks for non-doms, which allowed foreign nationals who live in the UK to avoid paying UK tax on their overseas income and gains. One London-based billionaire non-dom left the UK for good on the day of Hunt’s announcement,a tax advisor revealed.
RachelReevestightened the policy in her first budget, before thensoftening the changes in an attempt to woo the rich.
TheSundayTimeshas calculated that the combined wealth of the 350 entries on the Rich List has dropped by 3% over the last year, to £772.8bn, the third consecutive drop in collective value.
The entry level flatlines at £350m.
For the fourth successive year, the list is topped by Indian-born industrialistGopi Hinduja, 85, and family with a fortune of £35.3bn, down from £37.1bn in 2024 due to the drop in the value of their stock market-listed companies. Overall, the Hinduja’s companies operate in automotive, oil and speciality chemicals, banking and finance, IT, cybersecurity, healthcare, trading, infrastructure project development, media and entertainment, power, and real estate.
DavidandSimonReubenand family have risen to second place, with £26.8bn (up from £25bn last year) overtakingSirLeonardBlavatnik, whose wealth has dropped to £25.725bn (from £29.2bn) due to a drop in his stake in Warner Music Group,
There are some eye-catching fallers on the list too, including businessmanSirJimRatcliffe. He’s dropped from 4th to 7th, after his wealth declined to £17bn from £23,5bn in 2024.
Britain’s billionaires will have gained wealth in the last few weeks as global stock markets recovered from their plunge in early April, when Donald Trump launched his global trade war.
9.30am BST: Hong Kong GDP report for Q1 2025
10am BST: Eurozone trade balance report for March
1.30pm BST: US building permits and housing starts data for April
3pm BST: University of Michigan survey of US consumer sentiment for May (flash estimate)
Luke Hildyard, Executive Director of theHighPayCentre, saystoday’s Rich Listhighlights the connection between the excess wealth of “Britain’s billionaire class” and the country’s low pay and poor public services.
Hildyardexplains:
King Charles’s wealth has reportedly soared over the last year to £640m, matching former prime minister Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty, who have moved in the opposite direction.
Today’sRich Listshows that the King’s personal wealth has jumped by £30m to £640m in the last year. That lifts him to joint 238th in the list of the UK’s 350 wealthiest people and families, up 20 places from 258th in 2024.
The Sunday Times concedes that the magnitude of the King’s wealth divides opinion, as assets – such as the £15.5bn Crown Estate – are owned “in the right of the Crown”, and are not the King’s private property.
But as they explain, Charles built up his wealth over the years by saving the profits he received from the duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall – both now passed onto his son William.
Charles also inherited a large investment portfolio from Queen Elizabeth, which the Rich List says is worth about £125m, as well as valuable assets such as Sandringham and Balmoral.
But his wealth exceeds £640m, by some measures. Back in 2023, the Guardian reported that King Charles’s private fortune was estimated at £1.8bn.
At £640m, the King is now tied with Sunak and Murty, whose wealth has slipped to £640m from £651m, That’s due to a drop in the value of Murty’s stake in Infosys – the tech company founded by her father, which was hit by worries over US tariffs.
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.
The number of British billionaires has fallen, as the super-rich are hit by stock market turbulence and the end of tax breaks for non-doms.
TheSundayTimes’sannual totting-up of Britain’s richest people, just published shows that the number of billionaires slid to 156 this year from 165 in 2024. That’s the sharpest decline inthe Rich List’s37-year-history.
TheSundayTimesreports that “falling fortunes” have led many to drop off the list, while others are no longer eligible, having “fled Britain after Labour’s non-dom crackdown”.
Robert Watts, compiler of theRichList, says:
In March 2024, then-chancellorJeremyHuntannounced plans to axe the UK’s tax breaks for non-doms, which allowed foreign nationals who live in the UK to avoid paying UK tax on their overseas income and gains. One London-based billionaire non-dom left the UK for good on the day of Hunt’s announcement,a tax advisor revealed.
RachelReevestightened the policy in her first budget, before thensoftening the changes in an attempt to woo the rich.
TheSundayTimeshas calculated that the combined wealth of the 350 entries on the Rich List has dropped by 3% over the last year, to £772.8bn, the third consecutive drop in collective value.
The entry level flatlines at £350m.
For the fourth successive year, the list is topped by Indian-born industrialistGopi Hinduja, 85, and family with a fortune of £35.3bn, down from £37.1bn in 2024 due to the drop in the value of their stock market-listed companies. Overall, the Hinduja’s companies operate in automotive, oil and speciality chemicals, banking and finance, IT, cybersecurity, healthcare, trading, infrastructure project development, media and entertainment, power, and real estate.
DavidandSimonReubenand family have risen to second place, with £26.8bn (up from £25bn last year) overtakingSirLeonardBlavatnik, whose wealth has dropped to £25.725bn (from £29.2bn) due to a drop in his stake in Warner Music Group,
There are some eye-catching fallers on the list too, including businessmanSirJimRatcliffe. He’s dropped from 4th to 7th, after his wealth declined to £17bn from £23,5bn in 2024.
Britain’s billionaires will have gained wealth in the last few weeks as global stock markets recovered from their plunge in early April, when Donald Trump launched his global trade war.
9.30am BST: Hong Kong GDP report for Q1 2025
10am BST: Eurozone trade balance report for March
1.30pm BST: US building permits and housing starts data for April
3pm BST: University of Michigan survey of US consumer sentiment for May (flash estimate)