London - Britain's wealthiest people saw their fortunes rise
to record levels last year, according to the annual Sunday Times Rich List, at
a time when most Britons' earnings and savings were squeezed by inflation and
low interest rates.
The combined wealth of Britain's 1 000 richest people swelled
by almost 5% to more than £414bn ($670bn), the highest recorded by the
24-year-old survey, the Sunday Times newspaper said in an advance release on
Saturday.
Some 77 members of the 2012 rich list were billionaires, two
more than the previous record in 2008.
Their good fortune contrasted with the economic plight of
many Britons who face five years of austerity aimed at wiping out a record
budget deficit as the economy struggles to recover from the 2008 financial
crisis.
The three top places in the list were dominated by
foreign-born magnates with a base in Britain who earned their fortunes from
resource-based industries such as minerals, steel and oil.
Lakshmi Mittal retained his crown as Britain's richest man
despite losing almost a quarter of his wealth over the past year following a
fall in the share value of his ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker.
The Indian-born businessman saw his personal worth slide by
£4.8bn to £12.7bn, but that was still enough to keep him narrowly on top of the
list.
Uzbek-born billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who owns around 30%
of London soccer club Arsenal, was again in second place and close behind
Mittal with a fortune of £12.3bn.
Russian investor Roman Abramovich, who owns rival London
club Chelsea, held onto third place with a personal value of £9.5bn, down from
£10.3bn last year.
The richest British-born billionaire was the Duke of
Westminster, who slid from fourth to seventh place even though his largely
property-based fortune rose 5% to £7.35bn.
Britain's richest woman was former Miss UK beauty queen
Kirsty Bertarelli, who shares a £7.4bn fortune with her Swiss-Italian
entrepreneur husband Ernesto.
The list was published as British Prime Minister David
Cameron suffers a slump in his government's poll ratings following an unpopular
budget last month that cut income tax for the richest earners.
The annual list is based on identifiable wealth, including land, property and other items such as art, racehorses or significant shares in publicly quoted companies, but does not include bank accounts.