London (AFP)

Britain's largest fortunes lost money in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic for the first time in more than a decade, the Sunday Times reported.

The annual report on the 1,000 largest fortunes in the country, published each year by the newspaper since 1989, shows that these wealthy individuals or families saw their wealth melt by 54 billion pounds (60 billion euros) in just two months.

It is the first time since 2009 that the cumulative wealth of these 1,000 wealthy residents of the United Kingdom has decreased. More than half of them have become poorer.

With a fortune estimated at 16.2 billion pounds, the inventor and industrialist James Dyson jumped from fifth to first place in the ranking. The king of household appliances benefits from both the good performance of his companies and the setbacks of other billionaires.

Brothers Sri and Gopi Hinduja, at the top of the ranking in 2019, move to second position. Owners of the Indian conglomerate of the same name saw their wealth melt by 6 billion pounds, the biggest drop in the picture.

Their heritage is estimated at 16 billion pounds, tied with that of another sibling of businessmen, David and Simon Reuben.

Among other famous billionaires, steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal lost 4 billion pounds and ranks 19th.

In 2020, the UK has 147 billionaires, four fewer than last year. London remains the world capital of billionaires: 89 of them are based there.

"The first detailed analysis of the finances of the super-rich since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic heightens fears of a long and deep recession," commented the Sunday Times.

The newspaper underlines that at least 63 members of the list, including 20 billionaires, sought for their employees the help of the public fund set up for the duration of the crisis, and which provides workers with 80% of their salary up to 2,500 pounds per month.

Carys Roberts, director of the Institute for Public Policy Research, was outraged. "Why couldn't they go out of their own pocket instead of asking ordinary families to do it for them?" he told the Sunday Times.

© 2020 AFP