{"id":234584,"date":"2021-05-21T10:09:26","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T10:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=234584"},"modified":"2021-05-22T05:59:59","modified_gmt":"2021-05-22T05:59:59","slug":"rich-list-billionaires-get-wealthier-during-pandemic-as-fortunes-jump-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=234584","title":{"rendered":"Rich List: Billionaires get wealthier during pandemic as fortunes jump 21%"},"content":{"rendered":"

ITN News \u2013 May 21, 2021<\/strong><\/h1>\n

UK billionaires have seen their fortunes soar by more than a fifth as they shook off the financial toll of the pandemic<\/a>, according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List.<\/p>\n

The list revealed that there are now a record 171 billionaires in the UK, with Ukranian-born Sir Leonard Blavatnik topping the pile as the richest person in the country.<\/p>\n

The number of billionaires jumped by 24%, in stark contrast with the wider economic turmoil of the pandemic which saw millions enter furlough and the rate of unemployment lift to its highest in almost five years.<\/p>\n

Wealth among billionaires increased by 21.7% over the year, rising by \u00a3106.5 billion to \u00a3597.2 billion.<\/p>\n

Robert Watts, compiler of the rich list, said: \u201cThe global pandemic created lucrative opportunities for many online retailers, social networking apps and computer games tycoons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact many of the super-rich grew so much wealthier at a time when thousands of us have buried loved ones and millions of us worried for our livelihoods makes this a very unsettling boom.\u201d<\/p>\n

The annual index of the country\u2019s wealthiest residents showed that oil and media investor Mr Blavatnik saw his fortune surge by \u00a37.2 billion to around \u00a323 billion during the pandemic-hit year.<\/p>\n

His business interests include Warner Music, which he sold a \u00a31.37 billion stake in when it listed in the US last year.<\/p>\n

He took the title of UK\u2019s richest man from Sir James Dyson, who slipped back to fourth in the table after his wealth only increased by \u00a3100 million to \u00a316.3 billion.<\/p>\n

The electricals entrepreneur was also beaten by property investors David and Simon Reuben, who reached the second spot after their wealth increased by \u00a35.46 billion to \u00a321.46 billion.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Sri and Gopi Hinduja, who run the Mumbai-based conglomerate Hinduja Group, saw their fortune rise by \u00a31 billion to clinch the third spot.<\/p>\n

Other notable billionaires to feature in the top 10 included Alisher Usmanov, who saw his wealth rise by \u00a31.7 billion after selling his 30% stake in Arsenal football club.<\/p>\n

Chelsea owner and fellow Russian Roman Abramovich also saw his fortune climb, rising by \u00a31.9 billion to \u00a312.1 billion for the year.<\/p>\n

These are the 10 richest people in the country according to the rich list:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sir Leonard Blavatnik \u2013 \u00a323 billion<\/p>\n

David and Simon Reuben \u2013 \u00a321.46 billion<\/p>\n

Sri and Gopi Hinduja and family \u2013 \u00a317 billion<\/p>\n

Sir James Dyson and family \u2013 \u00a316.3 billion<\/p>\n

Lakshmi Mittal and family \u2013 \u00a314.68 billion<\/p>\n

Alisher Usmanov \u2013 \u00a313.4 billion<\/p>\n

Kirsten and Jorn Rausing \u2013 \u00a313 billion<\/p>\n

Roman Abramovich \u2013 \u00a312.1 billion<\/p>\n

Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken and Michel de Carvalho \u2013 \u00a312.01 billion<\/p>\n

Guy, George, Alannah and Galen Weston and family \u2013 \u00a311 billion<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While most of the country struggled with lockdowns, redundancies and reduced earnings, UK-based billionaires saw their wealth surge <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[105,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coronavirus","category-The_Oligarchs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=234584"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":234586,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234584\/revisions\/234586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=234584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=234584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=234584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}