The richest people in the West Country have been named in the Sunday Times annual wealth guide for 2021.
The 33rd edition of the list reveals the 250 richest people in Britain. There are now a record 171 billionaires in the 海角视频 - jumping by 24%.
It's 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.
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Wealth among billionaires increased by 21.7% over the year, rising by £106.5bn to £597.2bn.
Inventor and entrepreneur Sir James Dyson was named the richest in the region, although he fell into fourth place in the overall ranking.
Sir David McMurtry is the South West's biggest winner though, regaining his billionaire status after a sharp rise in the fortunes of Renishaw, the Gloucestershire engineering business he co-founded with John Deer.
Robert Watts, compiler of the rich list, said: “The global pandemic created lucrative opportunities for many online retailers, social networking apps and computer games tycoons.
“The 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.”
The richest people in the South West
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Sir James Dyson and family
The vacuum cleaner inventor, who employs thousands of people in Malmesbury, in Wiltshire, boosted his wealth by £100m in the last year to £16.3bn. However, he dropped in the rankings to be named the fourth overall richest person in Britain.
In 2020, Sir James sold his penthouse in Singapore for £33m, about £4m less than he paid in 2019, and moved his residence back to the 海角视频.
Dyson, however, will shortly move into its new global head office at St James Power Station in Singapore after a controversial decision in 2019 to move the operation there from Britain.
The company is still creating jobs in the 海角视频, however, and has announced plans to at its Innovation Campus in Wiltshire.
The 74-year-old is also planning to throw £2.75bn at robotics, artificial intelligence and a range of other new technologies over the next five years as he moves into new areas and doubles the company’s product range.
Earlier this year, Sir James was in the press with PM Boris Johnson at the height of the search for ventilators.
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Mr Dyson and family are one of seven billionaire entries from the South West among a record-breaking 171 billionaires in the 海角视频 recorded this year.
Peter Hargreaves
The financial services boss saw his wealth increase to £2.41bn - up £10m.
Mr Hargreaves co-founded Bristol-based Hargreaves Lansdown with Stephen Lansdown in 1981. It is one of the 海角视频’s largest financial services businesses.
Earlier this year, Mr Hargreaves reportedly announced he was selling a £300m stake in Hargreaves Lansdown.
According to City Wire, in February 2020, Mr Hargreaves also sold a £550m stake in the company, stating at the time it was part of a process of “long-term financial planning” to diversify his assets.
Chris and Sarah Dawson
Retail magnate Chris Dawson and his wife Sarah have seen their wealth stall for the first time in years - but they are still worth more than £2bn.
In a year when the richest people in the country got richer, the Plymouth-born entrepreneur and his spouse fell 12 places on the 2021 Sunday Times Rich List with their fortune put at £2.05bn.
That is the same as in the 2020 list, which was a £60m hike on the year before and saw the couple named as the 67th richest in the 海角视频.
Now the Dawsons are down to number 79 in the list, and comes after Mrs Dawson, who owns all the shares in their The Range retail empire, received no dividend for 2020 after pocketing £25m a year earlier.
Mr Dawson, a former market trader, has made his money from budget homeware, growing The Range to more than 175 stores, including three in his home city, Plymouth.
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The firm, officially called Norton Group Holdings, employs more than 10,000 people across the 海角视频, was named as the South West's second largest company in the Western Morning News' Annual Business Guide in late 2020.
It updated its financial statements recently, and for the year to the start of February 2020 had a turnover of £1bn and a gross profit of £386m, which fell to £46.7m after tax and other expenses.
During the Covid pandemic lockdown the group's stores remained open and it did not have to call for any additional funding.
But the Annual Report and Consolidated Financial Statements also revealed no dividend was paid to Mrs Dawson, who owns 100% of the company, during the year and “no dividend has been proposed post-period-end”.
In 2019, a dividend of £25m was paid to Mrs Dawson, who lives in the tax haven of Jersey, a year after the couple had trousered a £39m dividend.
Sir David McMurtry
The co-founder and executive chairman of engineering giant Renishaw is in fourth place on the South West rich list.
He is now worth £1.78bn - up £848m in the last year alone.
Renishaw makes key components for aircraft and cars, as well as hi-tech surgical equipment.
In March, Sir David and non-executive deputy chair John Deer, who set up the Gloucestershire-based FTSE 250 business nearly 50 years ago, announced they were planning to sell their stakes in the company to "secure the future" of the firm.
The duo said they would sell their combined 53% holding in the Wotton-under-Edge company.
Steve Lansdown
The co-founder of Hargreaves Lansdown increased his wealth by £15m in the last year to £1.365bn.
In November 2020, the finance boss, who founded the business with Peter Hargreaves, sold £103m of his shares in the firm.
Seven months before, he had sold a £160m stake, according to City Wire, after disposing of approximately 10m of his shares.
Last year, the billionaire also reportedly sold a wedge of his holdings in the company to the tune of around £550m.
Ursula Bechtolsheimer-Kipp and family
There was no change for Ursula Bechtolsheimer-Kipp and family, who owe their wealth to inheritance and hotels.
She ranked sixth on the list for 2021 with overall wealth of £1bn.
Ursula inherited handsomely from her father, the German retail tycoon Karl-Heinz Kipp, who died in 2017 leaving £3.2bn.
She and her family have a horsebreeding operation in Gloucestershire, and their daughter Laura Tomlinson won the dressage gold in the 2012 London Olympics.
Christina Ong and family
In joint sixth place is the “Queen of Bond Street” - Singaporean billionaire Christina Ong - who saw her bank balance increase by £122m last year to £1bn.
The 72-year-old majority owns Mulberry, the luxury brand favoured by Meghan Markle, with the handbags manufactured in Somerset.
Ms Ong founded her first establishment in 1972. She now heads the COMO Group, which comprises fashion group Club 21, COMO Hotels and Resorts and wellness brand COMO Shambhala among others.
John Deer
Non-executive deputy chairman of Renishaw engineering, Mr Deer, aged 83, worked with Sir David McMurtry at Rolls Royce before they decided to set up on their own in 1973.
His wealth was up £383m last year, taking his overall worth to £823m.
Mr Deer was managing director of Renishaw from 1974 to 1989, primarily involved in the commercial direction of the group, with particular emphasis on marketing and the establishment of the group's wholly owned subsidiaries in the USA, Ireland, Japan, Germany, France and Italy.
The Octogenarian, along with Sir David, announced plans to sell their combined 53% stake in the business in March.
The Vestey Family
The family, whose main business is the meat trading company Western United Investment Company, saw their wealth fall £4m to £717m in a year in which patriarch Lord Vestey, and his wife, both died.
The peer, who was a friend of Prince Charles and lived in Gloucester, died in February at the age of 79, three months after the death of his wife Celia.
The dynasty founded and still runs the multinational corporation Western United Investment Company which in turn owns Vestey Foods, Albion Fine Foods & FineFrance 海角视频, Cottage Delight, Donald Russell and Western Pension Solutions.
The Vestey Foods business operates six companies with divisions located in more than 10 countries, with supplier and customer relationships in more than 70 countries.
Stephen Fitzpatrick
New to the list for 2021 is the founder of Bristol-based energy giant Ovo.
Stephen Fitzpatrick’s wealth is now £675m, according to the Sunday Times.
The announcement comes after a turbulent year for the business, which announced it was axing 2,600 jobs in May last year, just months after buying up the retail division of rival SSE for £500m.
Ovo was also fined £8.9m by the industry regulator Ofgem for overcharging customers and sending out inaccurate statements in 2020.
The supplier sent out annual statements with the wrong information on to more than 500,000 customers, according to the Ofgem ruling.
The Sunday Times Rich List is available and in the print edition of the newspaper on Sunday, May 23.