Who are the South East’s richest people?
In our Private Wealth Guide for 2022/23, we featured celebrities hailing from Hertfordshire and Essex who have used their fame to amass significant fortunes. In this article, we decided to go one step further and focus on the wealthy heirs and businesspeople who have reached the very highest echelons of wealth.
In May 2022, the Sunday Times released its annual rich list featuring the wealthiest people in the UK according to the latest estimates of their net worth. As a law firm specialising in private wealth, this list is always of interest to us; of more interest still are the regional lists revealing the richest aristocrats and entrepreneurs living and working in the areas near us.
This year, the East Anglia list contains eight entries from the 250-strong national rankings, including Essex-based Alfie Best, whose park home business has netted his family a net worth of £700 million. Meanwhile, the South East list features 10 families, including that of Hertfordshire-based Peter Harris, who owns a string of hotel and leisure businesses and who took over ownership of Butlins in September 2022. Kirsten and Jorn Rausing, siblings and grandchildren of global food packaging company Tetra Pak, have a combined net worth of £12 billion and sit firmly at the top of both lists.
The local rich list
The richest people in the South East of England and East Anglia are:
South East
| Kirsten & Jorn Rausing | £12 billion | |
| Marit, Lisbet, Sigrid & Hans Rausing | £9.49 billion | |
| Nicky Oppenheimer & family | £6.456 billion | |
| John Grayken | £5.366 billion | |
| Sir Richard Branson & family | £4.2 billion | |
| Mike Ashley | £2.995 billion | |
| Inna Gudavadze | £2.65 billion | |
| Wafic Saïd | £1.985 billion | |
| Peter Harris & family | £1.596 billion | |
| Denis Sverdlov | £1.397 billion |
East Anglia
| Kirsten & Jorn Rausing | £12 billion | |
| Douw Steyn & family | £2.1 billion | |
| Jon Hunt | £1.436 billion | |
| The Earl of Iveagh & the Guinness family | £1 billion | |
| Mike Lynch & Angela Bacares | £988 million | |
| Patricia Thompson & family | £869 million | |
| Alfie Best & family | £700 million | |
| Paul Day & family | £668 million |
The best regions to build your wealth
Altogether, the South East and East Anglia contain a staggering 14 billionaires, out of 177 currently living in the UK – and it’s easy to see why they have chosen these two regions as their home. According to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), South East England boasts the highest household median wealth at £503,400 – a 43% increase since 2006 (after adjusting for inflation). The East of England (the official government region that encompasses East Anglia) enjoys the second-highest median net worth (£398,900).
Meanwhile, the two regions have also shown themselves to be hotspots for property investment, with recent figures showing that prices in some places have more than doubled over the past decade. According to research from Rightmove, eight out of the 10 places with the highest percentage growth in asking prices between 2012 and 2022 were either in the South East or East of England. Top of the list was Kent in the South East, with Margate, Horfield and Sheerness seeing growth of 102.5%, 96% and 95.6%, respectively. Taking fifth place was Basildon, Essex, which has enjoyed house price growth of 91.4% in just a decade.
Helping you build, maintain and preserve your wealth for the future
With offices in and around Hertfordshire, Essex and London, Attwaters Jameson Hill is perfectly placed to help you build your wealth for a prosperous future. Whilst we can’t guarantee you a spot on the rich list(!), our centuries of experience in private wealth matters render us the ideal choice for affluent families looking to enjoy their wealth today whilst also ensuring a secure and comfortable future.
Each year, we channel this expertise into our Private Wealth Guide, which demonstrates exactly why we believe that Hertfordshire and Essex are among the best counties for those looking to build their wealth. Please take a look at this year’s Guides by following the links below, or follow us on social media for updates using the hashtag #PrivateWealthGuide.
