The UK's richest family revealed - worth a whopping £34bn more than King Charles

Yesterday the richest family in the UK held the top spot in for the fourth year in a row, with an eye watering fortune of £35 billion. That's around £34.3 billion more than the Head of State , whose fortune swelled to £640 million this year.

The 76-year-old monarch recorded a £30 million increase in wealth, making him as rich as former prime minister Rishi Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murty, ranking joint 238th on the affluence list. However, the UK's richest man, Gopi Hinduja, has more wealth than anyone in the UK alongside his family, amassed from their Mumbai-based conglomerate, Hinduja Group.

The company, which has about 200,000 staff worldwide, gained significant wealth through business sectors such as banking, finance, media and entertainment.

The group was founded by Parmanand Deepchand Hinduja in 1914 who set up a merchant banking and trade business in and Pakistan, before expanding internationally to Iran in 1919, where it remained until 1979.

Gopi, who became a British citizen in 1997, began his career working for his father's textile business in India alongside his brother Srichand, who passed away in 2023.

The siblings acquired companies like Ashok Leyland from British Leyland, and Gulf Oil in the 1980s, before moving into banking in Switzerland and India in the 1990s.

However, it hasn't been a prosperous year for their fortune. The over the past 12 months, down from £37.2 billion last year, attributed to factors like a decline in the value of investments and shares.

Hinduja is now also investing in electric chargers for vehicles in the UK.

The King's wealth, on the other hand, was based on his personal assets, such as the investment portfolio he inherited from his late mother and private estates at Sandringham and Balmoral, not including the Crown estate.

He is now wealthier than the late , whose fortune was estimated at £370million in 2022.

Last year, the Hinduja Group came under significant scrutiny after four members of the family received prison sentences for exploiting staff brought from India to work at their Geneva villa.

Prakash and Kamal Hinduja, as well as their son Ajay and his wife Namrata, were found guilty of exploitation and illegal employment by a Swiss court and given sentences ranging from four to four-and-a-half years. They were acquitted on the more serious charge of human trafficking.

Speaking outside the court, Robert Assael, their lawyer said the employees "were grateful to the Hindujas for offering them a better life".

According to The Times rich list, collective wealth fell this year by 3% across the affluence ranking, which the paper said was a "stark reflection" of the UK wealth.

This year marked the third consecutive drop in collective wealth of the 350 entities ranked, and saw the biggest loss of UK billionaires, although the total still amassed an eye-watering £772.8 billion.

It reported that many had either fallen off the list or fled the UK following the The person with the smallest fortune clocked in at £350 million.