Sir Paul McCartney has become Britain’s first billionaire musician as the richest people who live in Sussex are revealed.
The Beatles legend and his wife Nancy, who own a 160-acre farm near Rye, moved six places up the Sunday Times’ annual rich list as their fortune rose £50 million to £1 billion since last year.
The list estimates the wealthiest 350 people in the UK based on shares, land, property, race horses and art.
Figures do not include the amount of money in bank accounts.
But it was the Rausing family who topped the list in the county, with a whopping £9.188 billion fortune.
Marit, Lisbet and Sigrid Rausing, who live in a grand estate in Wadhurst Park, inherited wealth from the late Hans Rausing.
Hans made his fortune from his own co-inheritance of Tetra Pak the largest food packaging company in the world, founded by his father Ruben Rausing.
He died at the age of 93 in 2019 leaving his immediate family his wealth.
The Rausing family were 16th overall in the list, down from 12th last year as their fortune decreased by £160 million.
In the last year, the family donated around four per cent of their wealth, £367.3 million, to causes including the environment, culture and human rights.
The final Sussex entry on the list is Tony Bloom, the chairman of Brighton and Hove Albion.
His fortune rose from £500 million to £716 million as the Seagulls made the Europa League for the first time.
Robert Watts, who compiled 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”
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