West Midlands Rich List 2024: The 28 richest West Midlands billionaires and millionaires in Insider’s Midlands Rich List

The 2024 Insider Rich List has named the 50 richest people in the Midlands with business leaders in the West of the region featuring prominently in the annual survey.

This year’s crop of the most wealthy billionaires and millionaires have a combined wealth of over £50bn.

That’s an increase of £4.9bn on last year’s data - with Staffordshire JCB owner Lord Anthony Bamford topping the overall list with his personal wealth rising by a whopping 60 per cent to £9.45bn.

And Staffordshire is home to the Insider Rich List 2024 second most wealth too - that’s the Bet365 entrepreneurs Denise, John and Peter Coates from Stoke-on-Trent. However their wealth health has taken a bit of a dip compared to their entry in last year’s list - falling by £72m, despite rising turnover.

The listing includes Oswestry animal feed and poultry business owners William Lloyd and family and Shropshire-based car parts business owner David Beddow.

The Insider Rich List has been compiled by Robert Watts, who also puts together the Sunday Times Rich Lists.

He has compiled the listing by focussing on those who are working in a business they either started themselves or inherited. Also included are those still living in the area who have recently sold their main businesses but retain interests in other ventures.

Midlands Business Insider editor Kurt Jacobs further explained: “We valued stakes in quoted companies in October 2024 according to prices prevailing in the Financial Times. Private companies were valued according to the ratios in their sectors or more generally where a sector rating was not evident, at around ten times their latest profit figures, which in many cases is more conservative than the stock market ratings.

“We deduct appropriate sums from dividends and company sales to reflect tax unless we are aware someone is not domiciled in the UK for tax.”

Here are the 28 richest billionaires and millionaires in the West Midlands, according to Inder’s Midlands Rich List:

1.Lord Bamford and family (aged 79) (Midlands ranking 1)

£9.450bn (2023: £5.9bn)

Construction equipment: JCB

The yellow digger tycoon just keeps on trucking, rising to the top of our Midlands Rich List this year. Profits jumped by 45 per cent to £805.8m at JCB in 2023. The Bamfords own all of the Uttoxeter-based £8bn construction equipment giant and the have a coterie of other businesses, including  Lady Carole’s Daylesford Organic food brand and hydrogen-powered bus manufacturer Wrightbus. Vast dividends from JCB – including £550m over the past two years – have helped the Bamfords amass a stunning property portfolio and other glittering assets, including the 206-foot super yacht Virginian. Bamford this year retired as a member of the House of Lords, but chugs on at the wheel of JCB. 

2. Denise, John, and Peter Coates (ages 57, 54, 86) (Midlands ranking 2)

£7.451bn (2023: £8.319bn)

Gambling

The queen of British gambling paid herself a £220.7m salary last year. Coates and her family also scooped £93.3m of dividends from Bet365. But although annual turnover has climbed to £3.4bn the Stoke-on-Trent online betting giant chalked up a £72.6m loss  in 2022-23, cutting its value to £6bn. The family typically takes dividends of around £100m a year, and Denise Coates’ salary last year exceeded £220m.

3. Jean Jacques Murray and family (age 58) (Midlands ranking 5)

£2.8bn (2023: £2.732bn)

Fire protection, air treatment hire, property, and hotels

Murray is the son and heir of the late war hero and entrepreneur Tony Murray, who built up a 90 per cent stake in the Wolverhampton-based manufacturer Andrew Sykes Group as well as a portfolio of hotels and the fire equipment maker London Security.

4. Sir Peter, James, and Steve Rigby and family (ages 81, 53, 52) (Midlands ranking 7)

£1.594bn (2023: £867m)

IT, Aviation, and Hotels

Profits at Rigbys’ Stratford-upon-Avon-based conglomerate have almost doubled to £156m over the past year. Their interests span IT, finance, hotels, and property. Coventry’s airport is one of five in his collection. Rigby’s sons James and Steve work with him. Rigby’s Stratford-upon-Avon-based collection of businesses began with SCC and technology remains at the heart of his conglomerate to this day. SCC provides cloud services, cyber security, software, and a range of other IT services to banks, universities, and government departments. Rigby last year opened the Rigby Academy to help young people develop their IT skills. Profits at the wider Rigby Group have almost doubled to £156m over the past year, and the operation should easily be worth £1.5bn.

5. Caspar MacDonald-Hall and family (age 73) (Midlands ranking 9)

£1.32bn (2023: £1.170bn)

Property

MacDonald-Hall’s largest property company LCP paid out a £25m dividend last year. The Kingswinford-based group owns industrial and commercial property across the UK, France, Poland, and Romania.

6. Sir Tony Gallagher (72) (Midlands ranking 10)

£1.295bn (2023: £1.275bn)

Property

A master at enhancing land values by securing planning permission, Gallagher sold one of his businesses for £520m and continues to build warehouses, flats, and other developments. For years a Tory donor, he hosted David Cameron’s 50th birthday at his Cotswold mansion.

7. The Richardson family (Midlands ranking 11)

£980m (2023: £965m)

Property

Brothers Martyn, Lee, and Carl now run the Richardson family’s Oldbury-based property empire, launched by their father Roy and his brother Don soon after World War Two.