‘UK super rich have it all’

Britain’s 1,000 richest people have doubled their mega fortunes since the recession began in 2009.

The Sunday Times Rich List, the annual publication of the wealthiest people in the UK, put their combined fortune at more than £547 billion pounds (over USD 830bn).

You now need to have a minimum of £100 million to make it on the list; in 1997 it was “only” £15 million.

The list is of the mega rich; the super wealthy figures even the rich guys look up to. They live in a world where there is simply no financial crisis in sight.

The richest man in Britain is London-based Ukrainian businessman Len Blavatnik, whose empire includes the Warner Music Group and whose estimated fortune is £13.17bn.

Blavatnik stole the top spot from the Hinduja brothers, who dropped to second, despite their fortune rising to £13bn.

Galen and George Weston and family, who run a retail empire including Selfridges and Primark, enjoyed a particularly prosperous year – with their wealth soaring by £3.7bn to £11bn.

There are 117 billionaires on the list with a staggering 80 based in the capital. London is now home to more billionaires than any other city in the world.

Today, the wealthiest 1,000 people based in Britain are collectively worth £547bn, up from £258bn in 2009, an increase of 112%.

Last year, official national statistics showed that Britain's richest 1% have accumulated as much wealth as the poorest 55% of the population put together.

The divide between the rich and poor is widening, and the difference between the rich and the super rich has gained pace.

NM/GHN

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