The Sunday Times Rich List 2023 was released on Friday (19) to announce the top 350 richest people in the UK. As the country continues to battle inflation and cost-of-living crisis, the number of billionaires in the list fell by six for the first time in 14 years. Now, there are 171 billionaires in the UK.
Robert Watts, the compiler of Sunday Times Rich List indicated that this year’s list was a precursor to the ending of the golden period for the super- rich. However, the total wealth of the billionaires grew by a whopping £30.73 billion and that, against the backdrop of cost-of-living crisis, is huge. The Hinduja family of the Indian conglomerate Hinduja Group have topped the list for second year in row with a wealth of £35 billion. Their fortune jumped by more than £6 billion, marking the largest fortune ever recorded by the Rich List in 35 editions.
However, this achievement comes at the heel of a great personal loss. The patriarch of the family, Shrichand Parmanand Hinduja, passed away on Wednesday (17) in London aged 87. His three brothers, Gopichand, Prakash and Ashok, issued a statement expressing the family’s grief that said- “He was a visionary and mentor to the family, bestowing the founding principles and values of our late father, P.D. Hinduja. He played a very important role alongside his brothers in building a strong relationship between his host country, the UK and his home country, India."
On the other hand, while 20 South Asians made it to the list, majority of them saw a fall in their wealth. British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murthy lost £201 million bringing their estimated wealth to £529 million. This has led to them plummeting down the list to 275th position from their debut position at 222nd position with £690 million. The couple has lost more than half a million pounds per day in the past year due to Infosys’ shares plummeting due to lower revenues from its banking, tech and other clients. The shares in Infosys is the most valuable asset Sunak and Murthy hold.
Many new faces made their debut in this year’s list and many previous rank holders made it back. Sunder Genomal, MD of Page Industries made his debut at the 78th position. Other new entries on the list include: Herman Narula (240) and Sanjeev and Arani Soosaipillai (121). This year’s Rich List is the very first one to be announced in the queen’s absence. She topped the inaugural rich list with a wealth of £5 billion, including state assets. King Charles III has surpassed his mother with his personal worth on £600 million at the 263rd position in this year’s list.
The South Asians in the 2023 Rich List have increased by six, with 25 people of South Asian descent making it on the list as compared to the 19 in previous year’s list. The decrease in the wealth is not being seen as a crash even as household names like Sunak and Laxmi Mittal have lost vast sums over the past year.
For the past two years, the wealth of the super- rich showed unsettling boom despite Brexit and the pandemic. Even though the number of billionaires has decreased and not everyone on the list saw a rise in the wealth in the past year, UK’s rich are getting richer.
