Queen Elizabeth not among richest

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth has dropped out of the Sunday Times rich list for the first time since its inception.
The 89-year-old monarch – who topped the very first list compiled by the publication in 1989 – is no longer recognised as one of the UK’s top wealthiest people and only ranked 302nd this year, a fall of 17 places from the 2014 figures.
However, the queen’s annual income has grown by £10 million in the last year, largely due to the Sovereign Grant, which sees the monarch receive 15 per cent of the profits from the Crown Estate.
The newspaper also confirmed the list didn’t take into account the Royal Collection, a priceless set of over 7,000 paintings, 40,000 watercolours, tapestries, furniture, ceramics and other artworks.
The collection is spread across a number of royal residences including Windsor Castle, Sandringham, Hampton Court Palace, and Holyrood Palace, with some of the pieces on display at the Queen’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace.
The 2015 Rich List was topped by Warner Music owner Len Blavatnik, a Ukrainian-American businessman who started his empire in the oil industry and has seen it grow to a staggering £13.16 billion.
This year’s figures included 117 billionaires – 80 of whom live in London – a rise from 104 in 2014.
A personal fortune of £100 million is now required to become one of the 1,000 richest people in the country, up £15 million compared with last year’s starting point of £85 million.
In 1997 it took a relatively small fortune of just £15m to join the list of Britain’s richest 1,000 people.