The number of UK billionaires has fallen while King Charles’ personal wealth has jumped to equal former prime minister Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty, according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List.
The annual list of the UK’s 350 richest people revealed the biggest decline in billionaires in the paper’s history.
Meanwhile in the past year, the King’s wealth has grown by £30m to £640m, increasing his rank 20 places to 258 with Sunak and Murty.
Topping the list for the fourth consecutive year is the Hinduja family behind the Indian corporation Hinduja Group, which, despite a decline in fortune, is recorded to be worth more than £35bn.
The number of billionaires slid to 156 this year from 165 in 2024, representing the sharpest decline in the Sunday Times Rich List’s 37-year-history.
“Our billionaire count is down and the combined wealth of those who feature in our research is falling,” Robert Watts, compiler of the Rich List told PA Media.
“We are also finding fewer of the world’s super rich are coming to live in the UK.”
He said he was “struck by the strength of criticism for Rachel Reeves’s Treasury” when speaking to wealthy individuals for the publication.
Mr Watts said: “We expected the abolition of non-dom status would anger affluent people from overseas.
“But homegrown young tech entrepreneurs and those running centuries-old family firms are also warning of serious consequences to a range of tax changes unveiled in last October’s budget.”
The Labour government abolished the non-dom tax status in April, which is where UK residents whose permanent home or domicile is outside the UK for tax purposes.
Instead, they now face the new foreign income and gains regime, which provides tax relief on foreign income and gains for people in their first four years of tax residence.
It only applies if they have not been a tax resident in the UK in any of the 10 consecutive years prior to their arrival.
Last year, former Conservative chancellor Jeremy Hunt revealed plans to scrap the tax status before successor Rachel Reeves sped up the process.
The government expects the package of measures to raise £12.7bn over the next five years.
US President Donald Trump’s global tariffs, announced in April, have also had an impact.
The announcement saw the stock markets plummet immediately afterwards, with turbulence continuing since and businesses facing higher prices in the US.
The International Monetary Fund has said in its recent forecast for the world economy that global share prices dropped “as trade tensions flared” and warned about an “erosion of trust” between countries.
Who are the richest people in the UK?
1. Gopi Hinduja and family (£35.3bn, down from £37.2bn)
2. David and Simon Reuben and family (£26.87bn)
3. Sir Leonard Blavatnik (£25.73bn)
4. Sir James Dyson and family (£20.8bn)
5. Idan Ofer (£20.12bn)
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