Sir Jim Ratcliffe - who is vying to take over Manchester United - has been named as the UK's second richest person after his wealth surged by over £23bn.
The boss of chemicals giant Ineos is now worth £29.688bn, according to the latest edition of the The Sunday Times Rich List. The Failsworth-born businessman was previously named the UK's richest person in 2018.
Sir Jim is now estimated to be the biggest private energy operator in the North Sea, three decades after mortgaging his house for £140,000 to do his first big deal. The part-time mountaineer and beekeeper built his fortune snapping up unloved petrochemicals plants and making them profitable.
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When energy prices rocketed and Europe shivered at the start of the Ukraine conflict, the chemicals giant Ineos grew exponentially.
Sir Jim grew up in a council house and earned pocket money as a teenager selling Golden Goal lottery tickets outside Hull City's ground.
He now owns two football teams — the French club Nice and the Swiss club Lausanne Sport — as well as the Ineos cycling squad and an America’s Cup crew.
As a result of the surge in his wealth, Sir Jim is now also the richest person in the North West, far surpassing last year's regional list topper - hedge fund manager Michael Platt. Mr Platt, who was born in Preston and runs BlueCrest Capital, saw his wealth increase by £1.5bn to £11.5bn.
The Duke of Westminster and the Grosvenor family, who own the likes of Liverpool ONE, increased their wealth by £152m to £9.878bn, according to the 2023 list.
The Duke, who inherited his title and a vast land and property portfolio when he was 25 – including 300 acres of Mayfair and Belgravia, and Cheshire – also tops this year's young rich list. Now 32, he oversees the dynasty's company portfolio, which has real estate in 43 cities across ten countries.
Under his leadership he has recently launched Grosvenor Hart Homes to provide more affordable homes and promised that all Grosvenor businesses will reduce carbon emissions in line with limiting global warming to 1.5C.
Tom Morris, the founder of Liverpool-headquartered Home Bargains, increased his and his family's wealth by £1.006bn to £6.133bn in the year.
The low-profile tycoon saw his retailer thrive during a cost-of-living crisis and saw sales increase to £3.4bn last year.
The son of a shopkeeper, Mr Morris started the outfit in the Old Swan district of Liverpool in his early twenties.
His chain of 575 stores now employs nearly 30,000 people. Home Bargains paid out a £30m dividend to him and his family last year, making Mr Morris the wealthiest Liverpudlian in history.
Rounding off the top five is Mohsin and Zuber Issa who run Blackburn-headquartered EG Group and own supermarket giant Asda alongside TDR Capital.
The brothers, who started with a single petrol station in Bury, Greater Manchester, saw their wealth rise by £302m to £5.05bn.
The Sunday Times Rich List charts the wealth of the 350 richest people in the UK and is complied by Robert Watts. The 35th edition of the list includes 171 billionaires, down six from 2022, the first fall for 14 years.
The combined wealth of the UK billionaires is £683.856bn, up £30.734bn, or 4.5%, on the total wealth of the billionaires in last year’s list.
Overall, the richest 350 in the UK this year are worth £796.459bn.
Mr Watts 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.
"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."
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