Britain's billionaires are voting with their feet - and the rich list proves it

"As many as one in six of the individuals and families who appeared on the 2024 ranking are missing from this year's edition, with the compiler warning that the figures lay bare the scale of Britain's wealth exodus. " Many foreign billionaires who have been living in the UK have... dropped out because they have moved away," Mr Watts said."

"Sanjay and Dheeraj Hinduja, the British-Indian brothers behind the Mumbai-headquartered Hinduja Group, kept top spot with a combined fortune of £38bn. The rest of the podium was likewise unchanged, with the famously secretive property magnates David and Simon Reuben and Ukrainian-born industrialist Sir Leonard Blavatnik both still sitting on fortunes north of £25bn."

"The most dramatic faller was Sir James Dyson. The inventor's eponymous engineering empire was hit hard by Donald Trump's swingeing tariff regime, and his estimated net worth nearly halved over the year from £20bn to £12bn, enough to send him tumbling from fourth to 13th. It is not the first time Sir James has tangled with policy: he has been one of the most vocal critics of Rachel Reeves's inheritance tax changes, branding them "spiteful" and warning of the consequences for British family businesses."

"Revolut chief executive Nik Storonsky and the publicity-shy quant trader Alex Gerko have broken into the top 10 for the first time. But the headline story, according to the list's compiler Robert Watts, is not who has arrived, it is who has gone."

The Sunday Times Rich List functions as a UK money league table, and the latest edition emphasizes departures over arrivals. Up to one in six individuals and families from the 2024 ranking are absent this year, reflecting a scale of wealth leaving Britain. Foreign billionaires are reported to have dropped out after moving away. The top of the list remains unchanged, with Sanjay and Dheeraj Hinduja retaining first place and David and Simon Reuben and Sir Leonard Blavatnik still holding fortunes above £25bn. Sir James Dyson experiences the biggest fall, with his net worth nearly halving from £20bn to £12bn due to tariff impacts, dropping from fourth to 13th. Nik Storonsky enters the top 10 for the first time, while Alex Gerko also breaks into the top 10.

Read at Business Matters