The Sunday Times Rich List 2024: Sir Paul McCartney reaches historic milestone, Brighton chairman enjoys £200m rise

The 76-page special edition of The Sunday Times Magazine reveals the largest fall in the billionaire count in the guide’s 36-year history, from a peak of 177 in 2022 to 165 this year.

This year’s list of 350 individuals and families, published today (May 17) online at https://www.thetimes.co.uk/sunday-times-rich-list and in the print edition of the newspaper on Sunday (May 19), together hold combined wealth of £795.361 billion – a sum larger than the annual GDP of Poland.

Sir Elton John, Lord Lloyd-Webber and David and Victoria Beckham all appear in the annual survey. The minimum entry for the list of 350 this year is £350 million.

Sir Paul McCartney has become Britain’s first billionaire musician. The Beatles legend, who owns a farm in Peasmarsh, near Rye in East Sussex, boosted his wealth by £50 million to reach the milestone, after falling short last year and being estimated at around £865 million in 2022.

The new milestone follows his successful 2023 Got Back Tour, the increase in the value of his back catalogue and Beyoncé covering The Beatles’ song Blackbird on her latest album Cowboy Carter.

Andrew Lloyd Webber is the second richest musician with a wealth of £515 million, followed by Sir Mick Jagger with £415 million.

Meanwhile, Albion chairman Tony Bloom has seen his fortune rise from £500 million to £716 million. Bloom ranks as the 233rd richest person in the UK, and the eighth richest in UK sport.

Landlords David and Simon Reuben and family, who own a ten per cent stake in Newcastle United, top UK’s sport rich list with a whopping £24.977 billion, ahead of new Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, whose wealth stands at £23.519 billion.

Surrey-based, Jorn Rausing, 64, and family remain the richest in South East England, with a large fortune of £12.634 billion.

Jorn and his sister Kirsten each own a third of Tetra Laval, a packaging company founded by their grandfather. Jorn was also an early investor in Ocado.

Other members of the Rausing family - Marit, Lisbet, Sigrid and Hans - are ranked second richest in the South East list with over £9 billion worth of wealth.

Marit and family donated four percent of their wealth to charitable causes over the past year, amounting to £367.3 million.

Buckinghamshire-based Vishal Karia maintains his spot on the young list this year, even with the age bracket widening to under 40.

After being expelled from school and diagnosed with ADHD, Karia founded the fragrance brand, Affinity. The sales at Affinity Fragrances have topped £100 million in seven years, making the wholesale giant £116 million.

Robert Watts, compiler of the Sunday Times Rich List, said: “This year’s Sunday Times Rich List suggests Britain’s billionaire boom has come to an end.

“Many of our home-grown entrepreneurs have seen their fortunes fall and some of the global super rich who came here are moving away.

“Thousands of British livelihoods rely on the super-rich to some extent. We’ll have to wait and see whether we have now reached peak billionaire, and what that means for our economy.

“These may be harder times to create wealth, but The Sunday Times Rich List continues to unearth entrepreneurs building fortunes in diverse and often surprising ways.

“This year’s new entries include people who have made money from artificial intelligence and virtual worlds as well as plumbing supplies and teaching aides.

“We know many of our readers find such people – especially those from humbler backgrounds – very inspiring.”

For the full 350 richest people in the UK go online at www.thetimes.co.uk/sunday-times-rich-list.