The wealthiest people in the South West have been named in the latest edition of the The Sunday Times Rich List.
Sir James Dyson is the richest person in the South West. The billionaire tech innovator’s valuation remained unchanged at £23bn this year and he was ranked fifth overall in the UK.
The company's software and technology hub is currently based in Bristol and it has recently announced plans for a £100m tech hub in the city.
Energy and transport: OVO and Vertical Aerospace founder Stephen Fitzpatrick, was the highest climber in the region, coming in at third place. The founder and chief executive of the Bristol-based energy provider is worth an estimated £2.212bn, up from £872m last year.
Read more: The Sunday Times Rich List 2023: The wealthiest people in the North West named
Landlord John Christodoulou was listed as this year’s second wealthiest in the South West at £2.45bn. The Cyprus-born property man’s family fled the island in 1974 after the Turkish invasion. He bought a flat in Finchley, north London, aged 19 and now owns swathes of Canary Wharf and Islington.
Placing fourth and fifth were Peter Hargreaves and Steve Lansdown. The former is said to be worth around £1.865bn while the latter weighs in at £1.179bn.
The pair are co-founders of Hargreaves Lansdown which remains one of the UK's leading financial services businesses. The firm is headquartered on Anchor Road, in Bristol, and employees over 2,000 people.
Mr Lansdown is also founder of Bristol Sport and the majority shareholder of Bristol Bears, Bristol Flyers, and Bristol City FC.
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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