Sir James Dyson and family remain the richest people in the South West, despite a fall of £2.2 billion. The figures are revealed in this year’s edition of The Sunday Times Rich List, which is published this weekend.

The list 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.

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Britain’s best-known inventor, Sir James, who has just launched a £600 electric mop, remains the wealthiest person in the South West with his fortune of £20.8 billion. Sir James, who is based at Malmesbury in Wiltshire, was named the fifith richest person in the UK in the 2023 list and in 2022 he ranked second wealthiest behind London-based brothers Sri and Gopi Hinduja.

He was born in Norfolk in 1947 and studied at the Byam Shaw School of Art and the Royal College of Art. He then went on to work in Bath to help create a flat-bottomed fibreglass landing craft called the ‘Sea Truck.’

He later produced the Ballbarrow in 1974 - a plastic bin shaped like a wheelbarrow which moved by rolling on a ball. A few years later, after observing the industrial dust extractor in his factory, he thought about scaling it down into a domestic product.

The inventor and entrepreneur sold a product known as G-Force to Japan where it became a commercial success and won a design prize in 1991. He then opened a plant in Wiltshire in 1993 and his Dual Cyclone product became the top-selling vacuum-cleaner within two years.

He then started to design his concept using just cardboard and sticky tape – an idea which eventually spawned into the Dyson vacuum. Dyson products were made in Wiltshire until 2002 before moving to Malaysia. The company has also made hairdryers, fans, and lights and has 14,000 employees worldwide in more than 80 countries.

Last May the firm unveiled plans for a £100million tech hub at George’s Square in Redcliffe, where it would develop a 10-year product pipeline of gadgets and apps. The company’s commercial and online sales teams for the UK and Ireland will also be based at the new Bristol office, as part of the proposals.

Owners of The Range, Chris and Sarah Dawson are the second wealthiest people in the South West. They also soared 15 places on the Rich List, as their wealth increased by £475 million to £2.5 billion. The market trader turned retail tycoon paid his wife Sarah a £141 million dividend this year.

Elsewhere in the South West, Peter Hargreaves of Hargreaves Lansdown is third at £1.843 billion, down £22 million, Sir David McMurtry from Wotton-under-Edge engineering firm Renishaw is fourth, up £128 million to £1.252 billion, and Steve Lansdown also of Hargreaves Lansdown, is fifth, being down £11 million at £1.168 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.

“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.”