UK Billionaire Count Plummets as King Charles' Wealth Surges to £640m

Hadisur Rahman, JadeTimes Staff

H. Rahman is a Jadetimes news reporter covering Business

---

Image Source: Getty Images

The number of billionaires in the UK has experienced its sharpest decline in history, according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List. The annual list of the UK's 350 richest people revealed a 5.5% drop in billionaires, from 165 in 2024 to 156 this year.

Meanwhile, King Charles' personal wealth has jumped by £30m to £640m, propelling him up 20 places to 238th on the list, where he is now tied with former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty.

The Hinduja family, behind the Indian corporation Hinduja Group, topped the list for the fourth consecutive year, despite a decline in fortune, with a net worth of over £35bn.

The decline in billionaires is attributed to a combination of factors, including the abolition of non-dom tax status and the impact of US President Donald Trump's global tariffs on the stock market.

"Our billionaire count is down and the combined wealth of those who feature in our research is falling," said Robert Watts, compiler of the Rich List. "We expected the abolition of non-dom status would anger affluent people from overseas, but we were struck by the strength of criticism for Rachel Reeves's Treasury."

The Labour government's decision to abolish non-dom tax status in April has been met with criticism from wealthy individuals, who will now face the new foreign income and gains regime. This provides tax relief on foreign income and gains for people in their first four years of tax residence, but only applies if they have not been a tax resident in the UK in any of the 10 consecutive years prior to their arrival.

The government expects the package of measures to raise £12.7bn over the next five years.

The Sunday Times Rich List also revealed that the King's wealth has surpassed that of his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, who was estimated to be worth £370m in 2022. The majority of King Charles' fortune has benefited from the investment portfolio he inherited from his mother, which has grown significantly since her passing.

The King's private estate, the Duchy of Lancaster, which covers over 18,000 hectares of land in areas such as Lancashire and Yorkshire, as well as property in central London, is worth £654m and generates around £20m a year in profits.

Other notable figures on the list include Formula One champion Sir Lewis Hamilton, David and Victoria Beckham, and Sir Elton John. Dua Lipa, 29, was the youngest person to be included on the sub-list of the richest Britons aged under 40, with an estimated wealth of £115m.