The Sunday Times Rich List is a magazine supplement published by the British national Sunday newspaper, The Sunday Times. The list records the 1,000 richest individuals and families in the United Kingdom since it was first published in 1989. Unlike Australia’s Rich List, the UK’s list also includes individuals and families that were born outside of Britain, but mostly live or work in the country. 2015 marked the first year since which the head of the Royal family was not included among at least the first three hundred in the list. Queen Elizabeth Ⅱ had been the wealthiest individual on the list in its first year of publication.
The paper provides justification for the names on the list via the ‘Rules of Engagement’, which is made public both in the newspaper and online. According to it, the wealth of the people considered is estimated based on publicly available information, excluding bank accounts, to which they have no access. The wealth generally considered by the editors includes publicly known assets such as land, property, racehorses, art and significant shareholdings held in publicly quoted companies (whose values can thereby be reliably estimated).
How rich do you have to be to make it onto the Rich List?
Despite being a small country, the population of Monaco is the highest in terms of the highest average net worth. The population of the country is only around 39,000, and yet requires that you have a net worth of USD 12.4 million to be ranked among the richest 1% in the country. The cut-off point for the United Kingdom seems to almost pale in comparison: only USD 3.3 million is required to qualify as the top 1% in the UK. Australia ranks third in the list, at USD 5.5 million.
Winners and losers in 2023’s Rich List
2023’s Rich List, which was published in May as is tradition, reveals quite a few fluctuations in the fortunes of last year’s wealthiest. Gopi and the Hinduja family have not had their 1st place in the list challenged and still top the list with a total estimated net worth of £35 billion. Sir Jim Ratcliffe replaces Sir James Dyson and family as the second on the list with a personal fortune of £29.7 billion. His ascension in the ranks was due to a reassessment of his fortunes, which added £23.6 billion to his wealth.
Among those whose rankings on the list were affected negatively this year was the famous British business magnate Sir Richard Branson. The decrease in net worth experienced by the founder of the Virgin Group amounted to £1.79 billion, which is roughly 40% of his total wealth. The decrease is chalked up to the losses suffered by the Group due to the pandemic. Another prominent name to fall back on the ranks was that of Rishi Sunak and his wife. Their wealth decreased when his affairs came under investigation following his decision to run for the premiership.
Other prominent names on the list include Sir Leonard Blavatnik with a fortune of £28.6 billion in third place, inventor Sir James Dyson, the Duke of Westminster, and Moscow-born mathematician Alex Gerko.
Wealth rises while billionaires fall
2022 has seen an increase in the wealth of the individuals named in the Rich List, while the number of billionaires in the country itself has fallen. There are six less billionaires now in the UK, even as the combined wealth among billionaires has increased by 4.5%. This fall is not an isolated phenomenon and is indicative of the overall global fall in wealth that has taken place. Worldwide, more than 3.5 million individuals have lost their millionaire status as a result of this global decrease in wealth. There are now ‘only’ 2.5 million millionaires in the UK, which means that 440,000 individuals have lost their millionaire status. The pandemic saw an increase in wealth inequality as the world’s riches were concentrated in the hands of the richest 1%. However, the period following the pandemic has seen this concentration of wealth fall slightly, reversing some of the inequality that it had intensified.
This decrease in wealth inequality, even if it is only in dollar terms, is a cause for celebration as the concentration of wealth only reflects an inevitable increase in poverty. According to the Oxfam, or the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, extreme concentrations of wealth also weaken growth, corrupt politics and the media, and lead to the corrosion of democracy and the polarisation of politics. The richest individuals in the world also contribute the most to the global climate crisis, while according to the Global Wealth Report for 2023, global wealth is forecasted to still rise by 38% over the next five years.
Middle-income countries are expected to be the chief drivers of this growth as well as global trends in the coming years. This faster growth in emerging markets can be expected to contribute to the equalisation of the global concentration of wealth, at least to some extent. According to Robert Watts, who compiles the Sunday Times Rich List, “this year’s… 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”.
The Sunday Times Giving List
The Sunday Times Giving List is an important supplement to the Sunday Times Rich List. It lists the most generous philanthropists in the country by tracking the donations made to charities by individuals in relation to their wealth. The list is compiled in collaboration with the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) in order to celebrate the generosity of the country’s leading philanthropists. According to their review, the top one hundred of the most generous Rich Listers donated a total of £3.4 billion to charity. These were directed at causes aimed at helping children, the environment, the arts, education, and health. Sir Chris Hohn ranked first in the list for the second consecutive year with donations amounting to more than 15% of his wealth.
The list also notes that charity in the UK has risen in general as donations to charity has risen by over one billion pounds over the past year. Research shows that there are more donations being made by the wealthy, albeit by fewer donors. This is also true of the general population as well, as generosity is on the rise, while the number of donors is shrinking. The decreasing number of donors suggests that it is the few with an excess of resources that are maintaining and even increasing their giving to help the vulnerable elements of society and to carry public causes forward. While the dedication is admirable, it also shows that common causes cannot rely on the generosity of the few and should instead be safeguarded through public policy for the benefit of all.
(Theruni Liyanage)