Simon Cowell, the man the public love to hate, has shot up the charts of The Sunday Times Rich List , making him the fastest riser of anyone in the music business.

Cowell has seen his personal fortune grow by an extra £40 million in one year.

The X Factor and American Idol judge, 47, now sits on an estimated wealth of £100 million. From 944th position last year to 700 this year, no other individual from the world of pop has risen up the ranks so much.

The music entrepreneur has overtaken Robbie Williams, 33, in the forthcoming Sunday Times list. The singer, at number 755, has increased his wealth by £5 million despite a spell in rehab and the critical mauling of his latest album, to £95 million this year.

Roman Abramovich, the Russian owner of Chelsea football club, sits at number two in The Sunday Times list, with a fortune of £10.8 billion, but he tops the list of the richest Russians, according to Forbes annual survey of the wealthiest Russian citizen.The survey, out today, was topped for the third year running by Mr Abramovich, according to Reuters.

Mr Abramovich's wealth, built on oil and now anchored in steel, grew 5 per cent over the past year, largely because of generous funding of the remote Chukotka region he governs and commitments to state-backed projects. His top spot was untroubled by his divorce earlier this year, which under Russian law could have cost him half his fortune.

In 55th place in the Forbes list is Boris Berezovsky, a Kremlin power broker, with $1.1 billion (£550 million). Mr Berezovsky, who now lives in political asylum in London, has sold all his former Russian assets and now keeps his money in bank accounts and liquid assets, Forbes said.

The world’s richest footballer, David Beckham, 31, has an extra £25 million, which takes his wealth to £112 million, and is ranked at 619 in the British rich list.

EasyJet’s Stelios Haji-Ioannou, 40, is closing the gap with Sir Richard Branson, 56, having broken the billionaire barrier. Stelios is now worth £1.29 billion and has moved up from 80th to 49th place. Sir Richard has dropped out of the top ten and has fallen two places to 11th with £3.1 billion assets.

Sir Paul McCartney, whose divorce settlement with Heather Mills is yet to be thrashed out, is currently ranked at 102 with £725 million.

They all still have some way to go to catch the wealthiest man in Britain, steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, who has increased his fortune to more than £19 billion, up from last year’s £14.9 billion.

The list shows that Britain’s super-rich are getting wealthier. It now takes £70 million to even make the 1,000-strong list, compared to £60 million in 2006. The number of billionaires in the annual list will be up by more than 20 per cent against last year’s total of 54. Fewer than 10 per cent of Britain’s richest 1,000 are women.

There are 37 music industry professionals on the list but no pop stars under the age of 30, thanks to astute record company contractors. At 33, Williams is one of the youngest to make the grade.

When the Sunday Times Rich List launched in 1989, 75 per cent of names had inherited their money. Today the majority, 78 per cent, have made it themselves.

Of the five wealthiest individuals, only one, the Duke of Westminster, was born in the UK, showing Britain is a magnet for multi-millionaires and billionaires from across the globe.

Britain’s Rich List is on ITV1 tonight at 9pm.

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