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London - Britain's richest people lost £155bn in the past year because of a deep recession and the global financial crisis, a survey showed on Sunday.
The Sunday Times newspaper's 2009 Rich List, featuring the thousand wealthiest people based in Britain, also found the number of billionaires sank from 75 to 43 people in the last 12 months as the credit crunch took its toll.
The country's 1 000 richest people have a collective fortune of £258bn, according to the weekly newspaper. That compared with a record £413bn in last year's survey.
"I am beyond being surprised, except by the scale of the devastation," said Philip Beresford, who has compiled the annual list since 1989.
"It is extraordinary how people have seen their fortunes being whittled away. It is devastation all round."
Indian-born steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal topped the list for the fifth year running - but he and his family's wealth has plunged 61% to £10.8bn in 2008, sharply down from £27.7bn in 2007.
That makes Mittal, 58, the biggest loser in the list, as his empire took a major blow from collapse of the world steel market.
Roman Abramovich, the Russian oligarch who owns Chelsea Football Club, is the second richest with £7.0bn, down 40% from £11.7bn last time.
The global financial crisis pushed Britain into an official recession in the second half of 2008, with the economy experiencing two successive quarters of economic contraction.
And official figures out Friday showed the recession deepened in the first three months of 2009, with the battered economy shrinking at the fastest rate in almost 30 years.
Some of the best-known British-born business figures also took a knock from the sharp economic downturn.
Virgin boss Richard Branson is now worth £1.2bn after losing £1.5bn in the last year.
The list also said Formula One racing chief Bernie Ecclestone lost £934m this year, leaving him worth £1.5bn.
On the upside, Ken Morrison, former boss of supermarket group Morrisons, saw his fortune jump 11% to £1.6bn, according to the 2009 survey.
And Mohammed Al Fayed, owner of London's up-scale Harrods department store, saw his riches climb 17% to £650m.
It now takes £55m to make it on to the Rich List, which compared with £80m last year.
- AFP