º£½ÇÊÓƵ

Tech tycoon Sir James Dyson and his family are the wealthiest people in the West of England despite experiencing losses of £2.2bn over the last year, the latest Sunday Times Rich List has revealed.

Britain’s best-known inventor, who has just launched a £600 electric mop, has a fortune of £20.8bn - down from £23bn in 2023. Mr Dyson, who is famed for products including his high-tech vacuum cleaner, has established a university and pledged £35m to his alma mater Gresham's School.

His company, which employs thousands of people at its base in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, unveiled a new £100m technology centre in Bristol last year. He was fifth on the .

Meanwhile, the owners of The Range, Chris and Sarah Dawson, soared 15 places on the rich list to place 70th nationally and second in the South West. Their wealth increased by £475m to £2.5bn, with the market-trader-turned-retail-tycoon paying his wife a £141m dividend this year, the Sunday Times said.

Peter Hargreaves, co-founder of Bristol-based Hargreaves Lansdown, saw his wealth fall by £22m to £1.843bn. He ranked third in the South West region for 2024.

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 £795.361bn — a sum larger than the annual GDP of Poland.

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 the guide suggested Britain’s billionaire boom had come to an end.