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| The Duke of Westminster |
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| RESULTS 2005 |
Ranking |
Worth |
Industry |
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3 |
£5,600m |
Property |
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| The 6th Duke of Westminster's Grosvenor Group is making itself felt on a global stage, building a massive portfolio of commercial and residential properties in Australia, the Far East and America. But that is not to say the group is neglecting its home patch. Last year Grosvenor announced plans for one of Bath's biggest developments. In 2006 work will start on the city's Western Riverside, part of a vast scheme that will take up to 20 years to complete. Taking such a long view has helped the duke, 53, to become Britain's richest property developer. Grosvenor's profit rose to £91.7m in 2003, while its net assets hit £1.848 billion. Yet the group makes up just a fraction of Westminster's wealth, which consists of vast estates in Lancashire and Cheshire, swathes of central London, and land throughout the world. Some 200 acres of Belgravia held in separate trusts are worth about £3.5 billion, almost twice the Grosvenor Group's net assets. Away from the pressures of running his property empire, and far from the comforts of Eaton Hall, his seat near Chester, Westminster devotes his energies to the Territorial Army. Such is his devotion to the TA that he has risen to become its first post-war major-general, commanding Britain's 250,000 part-time soldiers, sailors, airmen, reservists and cadets. He has visited Iraq four times during the present conflict and is sanguine about the dangers of places such as Basra. "When your time comes, your time comes," he says. "Whether you're rock climbing, walking the streets of Basra or coming out of George's restaurant in South Audley Street — one never knows when your time is up." The latter is a reference to an encounter he had with a truck while on foot in his Westminster estate last October. "I flew through the air with the greatest of ease. The truck didn't look great — but I wasn't too concerned about that." |
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| RESULTS 2004 |
Ranking |
2 |
Worth |
2004: £5,000m |
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