There are a
record 177
billionaires in
the UK with a
combined
wealth of
£653.122bn,up £55.853bn
on last year
THE
LIST
STARTS
HERE
Compiled by Robert Watts Edited by Alastair McCall
Deputy editor Nick Rodrigues Associate editor Ian Coxon
ST Magazine editor Krissi Murison Art director Daniel
Biddulph Design Robin Hedges, Mat Gill Pictures Jonty
Sutherland, Russ O’Connell, Francesca Whyte, Lucy Wright,
Louise Fenerci Chief sub-editors Helen Lawson (listings),
Matt Munday (features), Gabriel Samuels (digital)
Sub-editors Chris Jervis, Laura Hookings, Anthony Green,
Mark Curtis-Raleigh, Tim Nagle, Lisa Howard, David Fagan2022 wealth Increase / decreasein wealth since 2021Last year’s wealth and
Rich List rankingSymbols
▲ Wealth increase since 2021
▼ Wealth decrease since 2021
■ No change in wealth since 202123 ANDERS HOLCH POVLSEN
£6.5bn £500m ▲
Fashion: Bestseller and AsosHolch Povlsen, 49, is now Scotland’s largest landowner
with more than 220,000 acres and wants to rewild
much of it. He is the sole owner of the Danish fashion
retailer Bestseller, where profits leapt to £510 million in
2020-21. That offsets a poor year for Asos, the retailer
a quarter-owned by Holch Povlsen. A 75 per cent share
crash knocked £1.058 billion off his stake, now worth
£365 million. He has given more than £11 million to
Ukrainian refugees. 2021: £6bn, 28=KEY TO THE
LISTINGS
The 250 richest are in ranked order according to
our calculation of their overall wealth*Source of wealth includes some businesses no
longer owned but from which Rich Listers have
amassed significant wealthTHE
BILLIONAIRES
1 SRI AND GOPI HINDUJA AND FAMILY
£28.472bn £11.472bn ▲
Industry and financeHarmony may elude the Hindujas but their businesses have
hit record heights. Brothers Sri, above left, and Gopi Hinduja
are No 1 in our list for a fourth time, with the biggest fortune in
34 years of publication. For decades their Hinduja Group
stuck to the maxim of their late father, Parmanand, a carpet
and spice trader: “Everything belongs to everyone.” But
latterly Sri, 86, has bagged the Swiss-based Hinduja Bank,
disputed by London-based Gopi, 82, and their other brothers
Prakash, 76, in Monaco, and Ashok, 71, in Mumbai. The
family’s stake in the Mumbai-based IndusInd Bank is now
worth £4.545 billion, added to £2.663 billion in Ashok
Leyland in Chennai and £1.283 billion in the IT giant Hinduja
Global Solutions. Shares in other listed companies tot up to
£1.174 billion and they have sunk £12.075 billion into private
companies such as Gulf Oil International, a sponsor of the
McLaren Formula One team. Assets of £6.732 billion include
their London home near Buckingham Palace while Switch
Mobility, their £300 million Leeds start-up, has begun
making zero-emission buses, vans and trucks. A £1.2 billion
project to transform the Old War Office in Whitehall into a
120-room Raffles hotel and residences will come to fruition
this year. Strong growth and new information about the
Hindujas’ wealth boost their valuation. 2021: £17bn, 32 SIR JAMES DYSON AND FAMILY
£23bn £6.7bn ▲
Household goods and technology: DysonDyson has unmasked his latest invention: air-purifying
headphones due on sale in the autumn. Some previewers found
the dual purpose sci-fi device bizarre when it was introduced
by Dyson’s son Jake, 49, after six years in development. But
naysayers have never been given house room by the 75-year-old
inventor, who has reimagined vacuum cleaners, hairdryers,
air conditioning, hand dryers and lighting. Despite the
headwinds of shipping disruption and the global shortage of
microchips, Dyson Group had a record year in 2021 with profits
of £1.5 billion on sales of more than £6 billion — raising its value
from £14.5 billion to £21 billion. Personal assets add £2 billion.
Lately Dyson has invested heavily in robotics and artificial
intelligence. He plans to hire 2,000 staff worldwide this year,
including 900 in the UK. Dyson moved his headquarters out
of Britain three years ago and the business is now based in a
“cathedral-like” former power station in Singapore, where he
has a £26 million home. In the UK he owns more land than the
Queen — more than 35,000 acres — and employs thousands of
staff at his Malmesbury campus in Wiltshire, a software hub in
Bristol and another site at Hullavington airfield. He recently
agreed to fund dementia research at Edinburgh University.
A passionate farmer, Norfolk-born Dyson wants Britain to
produce more of its own food and has become a leading grower
of strawberries, potatoes and peas. 2021: £16.3bn, 4