THE Sunday Times Rich List 2023 has been unveiled, and a number of northerners have made this year's list.
Topping the north west's rich list is multi-billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who increased his net wealth by more than £23billion in just one year.
Sir Jim is ranked as second in the whole of this year's rich list.
The part-time mountaineer and beekeeper built his fortune snapping up unloved petrochemicals plants and making them profitable.
When energy prices rocketed at the start of the Ukraine conflict, his chemicals giant Ineos grew hugely - explaining his wealth boom of £23.613billion in one year.
This takes his net wealth, as of 2023, up to an eyewatering £29.688billion.
Ratcliffe grew up in a council house in Failsworth near Manchester and earned pocket money as a teenager selling Golden Goal lottery tickets outside Hull City’s ground.
He now hopes to fulfil a childhood dream by buying Manchester United.
Other names on the north west's rich list this year include hedge fund investor Michael Platt (valued at £11.5billion), as well as Home Bargains mogul Tom Morris, who is worth an estimated £6.133billion.
The top five earners in the north west, according to the Sunday Times, were:
- Sir Jim Ratcliffe (owner, Ineos) - £29.688billion
- Michael Platt (owner, BlueCrest Capitals) - £11.5billion
- The Duke of Westminster and the Grosvenor family (owners, Grosvenor Group) - £9.878billion
- Tom Morris and family (owner, Home Bargains) - £6.133billion
- Mohsin and Zuber Issa (fuel distributors) - £5.05billion
Familiar northern names on 2023's Young Rich List include ex-One Direction stars Harry Styles - valued at £150million - and Louis Tomlinson, who is worth £54million.
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. The bursting of the tech bubble, the end of rock bottom interests and the jitters creeping through the banking industry have all taken their toll."
He added: “The super-rich don't exist in a vacuum. Many small investors lost money in some of their overblown stock market floats. Many people also work for their businesses.
"Financial losses for billionaires can have implications for us all."
The full Sunday Times Rich List 2023 can be found here: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/sunday-times-rich-list
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