The Sunday Times Rich List 2026 has named Sanjay Hinduja and Dheeraj Hinduja as Britain’s wealthiest individuals and families, after the death last year of their father, Gopichand Hinduja. The annual ranking recorded 157 billionaires this year, up from 156 a year earlier.

The Hinduja brothers moved to the top of the list as the family wealth linked to Gopichand Hinduja, the patriarch behind Hinduja Group, passed to the next generation. Sir James Dyson and Sir Jim Ratcliffe were also listed again in 2026, underlining the dominance of familiar names at the top end of the ranking.

One of the few major changes came from outside the usual circle. Christopher Harborne entered the 2026 list in sixth place with an estimated fortune of £18.2 billion, a debut that put him among the country’s most valuable private fortunes in a single step.

The list is published each year as a snapshot of Britain’s richest people and families, but the 2026 edition also reflected a broader shift in where some of that wealth now sits. Robert Watts, who compiled the ranking, said many foreign billionaires who had been living in the UK had dropped out because they had moved away. He said there had also been a sharp rise in the number of British nationals now resident in Dubai, Switzerland and Monaco, and that as UK nationals they remained on the list wherever they now lived.

That movement matters because the list is no longer just a tally of wealth at home; it is also a measure of how much of Britain’s richest class is choosing to build, hold or relocate its fortunes elsewhere. Watts said those two exoduses posed challenges for the UK economy and its public finances, warning that the country could lose not only spending and investment but also tax revenue from affluent people who have left.

He put the issue starkly, asking whether more wealthy people would set up or grow their ventures overseas and, in doing so, create fewer jobs in Britain, and how much tax, if any, Rachel Reeves’ Treasury would be able to extract from rich Britons now living abroad. The answer will help determine whether the Sunday Times Rich List 2026 is remembered mainly for another year of immense fortunes, or for showing how much of that wealth is starting to drift beyond the UK’s reach.