Graham King, the Essex businessman whose company earns £3.5 million a day housing asylum seekers for the government, has been named among the 350 richest people in the UK. The 56-year-old founder of Clearsprings Ready Homes, which holds a 10-year Home Office contract, is estimated to have a £750 million fortune, ranking 221st on the Sunday Times rich list.
King's wealth comes from holiday parks, inheritance, and government contracts for asylum accommodation. His company reported after-tax profits of £62.5 million for the year ending January 2023, more than double the previous year's £28 million. He joins new entries including Sir Lewis Hamilton and Euan Blair, whose apprenticeship firm Multiverse is valued at £1.4 billion.
The rich list reveals a record drop in billionaires, from 177 to 165, with total combined wealth of the richest 350 individuals and families reaching £795 billion. Sir Jim Ratcliffe suffered the biggest loss, with his fortune declining by £6.2 billion to £29.7 billion. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty saw their wealth increase by £120 million to an estimated £651 million.
Critics have condemned the growing inequality highlighted by the list. Priya Sahni-Nicholas of the Equality Trust said it 'demonstrates the obscene extent of inequality' in the UK, while Luke Hildyard of the High Pay Centre questioned whether such concentration of wealth is 'a fair, proportionate or efficient allocation of resources'. Researchers noted that the wealth of the 200 richest families has surged from £42 billion to £711 billion over 36 years, while overall public wealth has declined.
