Two Gloucestershire businessmen appear in the top 250 of the annual Sunday Times Rich List, published yesterday.

Sir David McMurtry, 82, the co-founder of Gloucestershire engineering business Renishaw has slipped down the list after profits slumped at the Wotton-under-Edge based company.

Sir David saw his wealth fall £650 million to £1.13 billion, ranking him 162nd richest person in Britain after he was ranked 93rd on the list last year.

Sir David's co-founder at Renishaw, John Deer, appears to have fallen out of the top 250 after he was ranked 195th on the list last year when he was worth £823 million.

Renishaw makes key components for aircraft and cars, as well as hi-tech surgical equipment.

Another Gloucestershire resident to appear in the Rich List is Lord William Vestey, 38, who last year inherited the title after the death of his father, who was one of Britain's richest men thanks to his family's food business, Vestey Holdings, which owned the Dewhurst the Butchers chain.

Lord Vestey, who presides over the 6,000-acre Stowell Park Estate in the Cotswolds, is said to be worth £716m, down £1m on 2021. That puts him at number 226 on the Rich List, down two places on 2021.

The Sunday Times described Lord Vestey as "a close friend of the Duke of Cambridge, having played polo with the future king".

The Sunday Times Rich List is a list of the 250 wealthiest people or families resident in the United Kingdom ranked by net wealth.

Brothers Sri, 86, and Gopi 82, Hinduja top the list for a fourth time, with the biggest fortune recorded in the list's 34-year history. Their wealth rose this year by £11.4 billion to an eye-popping £28.4 billion .

With a family fortune of £23 million, up £6.7 billion on 2021, inventor Sir James Dyson, 75, has become the second richest person in the UK. Dyson Group had a record year in 2021 with profits of £1.5 billion on sales of more than £6 billion - raising its value from £14.5 billion to £21 billion.

The Queen's net worth rose £5m to £370m while Sir Paul McCartney's fortune rose by £45 million to £865 million.

There are now 177 billionaires in the UK recorded this year, up six from 2021, a year-on-year increase that is also a record. 

The combined wealth of the UK billionaires is £653.122 billion, up £55.853 billion, or 9.4 per cent, on the total wealth of the billionaires in last year's Rich List.