The Sunday Times Rich List for 2026 has unveiled the wealthiest ten people in the West Midlands, featuring a Lord and the co-founder of Gymshark. Lord Bamford and his family have been named the wealthiest in the region, according to the list published today.
Lord Bamford Leads the List
Lord Bamford, chairman of JCB, recently gained planning permission to build an observatory at his estate in the Cotswolds to showcase rural crafts and regenerative farming. A Tory peer and political donor, he has retired from the House of Lords.
Gymshark co-founder Ben Francis made the top ten list again, coming in at tenth with a fortune of £800 million.
Top Ten Richest in the West Midlands
- Lord Bamford and family – £10.318bn (construction giants)
- Denise, John and Peter Coates – £9.728bn (gambling group)
- Ranjit and Baljinder Boparan and family – £2.03bn (food supplier)
- Caspar MacDonald-Hall and family – £1.654bn (landlords)
- John Caudwell – £1.569bn (telecoms tycoon)
- Sir Tony Gallagher – £1.345bn (developer)
- Sir Peter, James and Steve Rigby – £1.041bn (industrialists)
- Roy Richardson and family – £1.03bn (developers)
- Lord Edmiston – £897m (car dealer)
- Ben Francis – £800m (fashion)
Rich List Big Picture
The likes of Sir Elton John, Lord Lloyd-Webber, Sir Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, JK Rowling, Charlotte Tilbury and Sir Lewis Hamilton all appear in the annual survey. This year's list of 350 individuals and families holds a combined wealth of £783.5 billion, a sum larger than the annual GDP of Belgium ($776 billion), Sweden ($760 billion) and Israel ($719 billion). It represents about a quarter of the United Kingdom's total annual GDP.
The minimum entry level dips to £340 million, another indicator of a subdued year. Robert Watts, compiler of the Sunday Times Rich List, said: "This year's Rich List is a tale of two exoduses. One in six of the individuals and families who appeared on the list two years ago don't feature this time. Many foreign billionaires who have been living in the UK have also dropped out because they have moved away. We have also seen a sharp rise in the number of British nationals now resident in Dubai, Switzerland and Monaco. As UK nationals these people remain on our Rich List - wherever they now live. These two exoduses pose challenges for the UK economy and its public finances. Will more of the wealthy now set up or grow their ventures overseas and in doing so create fewer jobs here? How much tax - if any - will Rachel Reeves's Treasury be able to extract from those affluent Brits who have now left the country?"
For nearly 40 years the Sunday Times Rich List has analysed the fortunes of Britain's most affluent people. We believe understanding where wealth lies and where it is being accumulated is a vital part of a functioning democracy.
