Duke of Northumberland included in Sunday Times Rich List

Ralph Percy, the 12th Duke, owner of Alnwick Castle, has an estimated wealth of £509m, up £9m – placing 5th in the North East.

Top of the North East rich list is David and Simon Reuben and family, part owners of Newcastle United, with an estimated wealth of £24.977bn – up £578m. They made their millions in metals trading.

Steve Gibson is second in the North East with his £640m fortune after a successful year for the logistics company owner and controller of Middlesbrough FC.

Owners of the clothing brand Barbour, Dame Margaret and Helen Barbour, are third in the North East with £537m – but they have also donated £8.5m to charitable causes this year, nearly 1.6 per cent of their combined wealth. This hefty donation lands them 24th on The Sunday Times Giving List 2024.

Fourth in the North East is Mark Fenwick and family of department store Fenwick with a wealth of £526m, up £26m.

The Sunday Times Rich List is published online at https://www.thetimes.co.uk/sunday-times-rich-list and in the print edition of the newspaper on Sunday, May 19.

The 76-page special edition of The Sunday Times Magazine reveals the largest fall in the billionaire count in the guide’s 36-year history, from a peak of 177 in 2022 to 165 this year.

This year’s list of 350 individuals and families together hold combined wealth of £795.361 billion. Sir Elton John, Lord Lloyd-Webber and David and Victoria Beckham all appear in the annual survey. The minimum entry for the list of 350 this year is £350m.

Robert Watts, compiler of the Sunday Times Rich List, said: “This year’s Sunday Times Rich List suggests Britain’s billionaire boom has come to an end. Many of our home-grown entrepreneurs have seen their fortunes fall and some of the global super rich who came here are moving away.

“Thousands of British livelihoods rely on the super-rich to some extent. We’ll have to wait and see whether we have now reached peak billionaire, and what that means for our economy.”