Ed Sheeran remains the richest young musician in the UK and the richest person under 40 in the East of England.
The singer/songwriter, from Framlingham, Suffolk, paid himself £62 million for the first half of his Mathematics world tour, taking his total wealth to £340 million.
He is just pipped at the post in the latest Sunday Times Rich List by Sir Lewis Hamilton, whose overall value of £350 million also sees him debut in the list for 2024.
The Rich List, published today, names Sir James Dyson is the richest person in the East of England.
The special edition of The Sunday Times Magazine also 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 £795.361 billion — 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 £350 million.
Douw Steyn wealth has grown by nearly £1 billion (£900 million) over the past year, totalling £3 billion.
The Comparethemarket businessman has insured himself the large increase due to large dividends of £868.1 million paid to its parent company.
However Sir James Dyson, who has just launched a £600 electric mop, remains the richest in the East of England with an estimated wealth of £20.8 billion.
Robert Watts, compiler of the Sunday Times Rich List, said: “This year’s Sunday Times Rich List suggests Britain’s billionaire boom has come to an end.
“Many of our home-grown entrepreneurs have seen their fortunes fall and some of the global super rich who came here are moving away.
“Thousands of British livelihoods rely on the super-rich to some extent. We’ll have to wait and see whether we have now reached peak billionaire, and what that means for our economy.
“These may be harder times to create wealth, but The Sunday Times Rich List continues to unearth entrepreneurs building fortunes in diverse and often surprising ways. This year’s new entries include people who have made money from artificial intelligence and virtual worlds as well as plumbing supplies and teaching aides.
“We know many of our readers find such people — especially those from humbler backgrounds — very inspiring.”
