Sunday Times Rich List 2025: Sir Paul McCartney maintains billionaire status, Brighton chairman enjoys £5m rise

Following on from his debut last year, Sir Paul McCartney, who owns a 160-acre farm near Rye with his wife Nancy, maintains his billionaire status after his Got Back tour, including two shows at the O2 in London.

The former Beatle saw his personal fortune rise from £1 billion in 2024 to £1.025 billion in 2025.

But heir Jorn Rausing tops the Southeast list, according to this year’s edition of the Sunday Times Rich List, published today online at https://www.thetimes.com/sunday-times-rich-list and in the print edition of the newspaper on Sunday, May 18.

Jorn Rausing owns a third of Tetra Laval, the largest food packaging company in the world, founded by his grandfather Ruben Rausing making his net worth a nice £12.5 billion.

Marit, Lisbet, Sigrid and Hans Rausing, who live in a grand estate in Wadhurst Park, are just behind cousin Jorn in terms of wealth, with a personal fortune of £9.088 billion.

But the Rausing family saw their respective personal fortunes decline in 2025.

Jorn saw his decrease from £12.634 billion in 2024, while Marit, Lisbet, Sigrid and Hans saw theirs drop from £9.188 billion.

The final Sussex entry on the list is Brighton & Hove Albion chairman Tony Bloom.

The 55-year-old, who was educated at Lancing College, saw his fortune rise from £716 million to £721 million.

The 76-page special edition of The Sunday Times Magazine reveals the largest fall in the billionaire count in the guide’s 37-year history, from a peak of 177 in 2022 to 156 this year.

The number of billionaires has dropped for three successive years – this year's decline is the sharpest yet.

This year’s list of 350 individuals and families together hold combined wealth of £772.8 billion – three per cent down on last year.

Sir Elton John, Lord Lloyd-Webber, Sir Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Euan Blair, Sir Lewis Hamilton and Sir Christopher Nolan all appear in the annual survey.

The combined wealth in the 37th annual edition is £772.8 billion – a sum larger than the annual GDP of Switzerland.

The minimum entry level flatlines at £350 million – another indicator of a subdued year.

Robert Watts, compiler of the Sunday Times Rich List, said: “The Sunday Times Rich List is changing.

“Our billionaire count is down and the combined wealth of those who feature in our research is falling.

“We are also finding fewer of the world’s super rich are coming to live in the UK.

“This year we were also struck by the strength of criticism for Rachel Reeves’s Treasury.

“We expected the abolition of non-dom status would anger affluent people from overseas.

“But homegrown young tech entrepreneurs and those running centuries-old family firms are also warning of serious consequences to a range of tax changes unveiled in last October’s budget.

“Our research continues to find a wide variety of self-made entrepreneurs building fortunes not just from artificial intelligence, video games and new technologies but also mundane, everyday items such as makeup, radiators and jogging bottoms.

“We know many of our readers find these people and their stories inspiring – especially the many who had tough starts or setbacks to their lives and careers.”

For the full 350 richest people in the UK go online at www.thetimes.com/sunday-times-rich-list.