By Samantha Jones-
Gopi Hinduja and his family are the richest people in the UK with a wealth of £35billion, according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2023.
The Hinduja family – who are behind the Indian conglomerate Hinduja Group – have topped the list for the second year in a row as their fortune jumped by more than £6billion.
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Their wealth also marks the largest fortune ever recorded in 35 editions of the Sunday Times Rich List – but it comes just days after Srichand, the eldest of the four Hinduja brothers, died aged 87.
Gopi Hinduja, 83, is an Indian-born British billionaire businessman and the co-chairman of his family’s global business empire the Hinduja Group.
Gopi is one of two brothers, out of four overall, who took control of the family business empire.
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Globally, the business belonged to all four brothers – Srichand, Gopi, Prakash and Ashok – with Sri, 87, and Gopi mainly managing UK interests.
Sri died this year at the age of 87 on May 17 after a reported battle with Dementia.
The brothers first reached the top of the Sunday Times Rich List in 2014, when their wealth stood at £11.9 billion.
The multinational business is the brainchild of their father, Parmanand Deepchand Hinduj, who originally traded goods in the Sindh region of India.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who is currently in a battle to take control of Manchester United, is this year’s highest climber and comes in second place with an estimated fortune of £29.7billion.
For the first time in 14 years, the number of billionaires on the list fell by six – meaning there are now 171 billionaires in the UK.
But combined, their wealth grew by an eye-watering £30.73billion – against a backdrop of the cost of living crisis.
To Sunday Times Rich List
Sir Richard Branson saw his fortune shrink by £1.79billion – down by more than 40% in a year – after a turbulent year which saw big losses in his Virgin empire.
It means Sir Richard and his family are now worth £2.41billion – down from £4.2billion.
Tech mogul Guillaume Pousaz saw his personal fortune plunge by £13.3billion due to a lower valuation of his payments firm Checkout.com.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty also slipped down the rankings with a fall of £201million in 12 months – an average daily rate of more than £500,000.
Richard Branson onboard the new Scarlet Lady Virgin Voyages cruise ship
Sir Richard Branson saw his fortune drop by £1.79billion ( Image: Tom Wren SWNS)
The couple’s wealth is estimated at £529million this year following a fall in value of her stake in her father’s IT company, Infosys.
Three women feature in this year’s top ten – brewing billionaire Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken, packaging heiress Kirsten Rausing and Alannah Weston.
Prince George’s godfather, Hugh Grosvenor, the seventh Duke of Westminster, and his family have an estimated total wealth of £9.8billion.
They place first on the under-35s Sunday Times Rich List and number 11 overall on the main list.
Robert Watts, compiler of the Sunday Times Rich List, said: “This year’s Sunday Times Rich List shows a golden period for the super rich is over. For the first time in 14 years we’ve seen the number of UK billionaires fall.
“Two years ago we raised concerns about an unsettling boom in the fortunes of the very wealthy that continued unchecked during the political instability around Brexit and the pandemic.
“This is not a crash – but there are household names who have lost vast sums over the past year.”
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