Wiltshire's high-profile inventor Sir James Dyson is now the second richest person in the UK, according to this year's Sunday Times Rich List.

Dyson and his family have a net worth of £23bn but were beaten to the top spot by Sri and Gopi Hinduja whose fortune grew to £28.472bn. Sir James, 75, is one of 177 billionaires in the UK this year.

The entrepreneur has moved up two places since last year after his company Dyson Group celebrated a turnover of more than £6 billion in 2021.

"The record year leads us to increase the value of the business from £14.5 billion to £21 billion and we add a further £2 billion for Dyson’s extensive personal assets," The Sunday Times said.

The tech tycoon, who invented the dual cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner, owns 35,000 acres of land in the UK which is more than the Queen.

Dyson Group's UK HQ is based at the Malmesbury campus which was first established in 1993 when Sir James launched the company. It is the base for over 3,500 Dyson employees as well as the Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology.

The Brexit-backing inventor moved his company's global headquarters to Singapore three years ago.

But Sir James still comes into the Wiltshire office himself and visits the engineers, according to The Sun's article on the UK campus earlier this month. 

Dyson's website says: "The vast [Malmesbury] campus is home to thousands of people, including James and Jake Dyson, who spend heir days strategising, inventing technology and telling the Dyson story to the world."

Chancellor Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty made the list of the top 250 wealthiest people in the UK at number 222 with a net worth of £730m.

Russian oligarch and former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich slipped out of the top 20 and fellow Russians Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman dropped down the list after the value of their assets was hammered by financial measures in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

These are the 20 richest people in the UK according to the Rich List:

Sri and Gopi Hinduja and family – £28.47 billion

Sir James Dyson and family – £23 billion

David and Simon Reuben and family – £22.26 billion

Sir Leonard Blavatnik – £20 billion

Guillaume Pousaz – £19.26 billion

Lakshmi Mittal and family – £17 billion

Guy, George, Alannah and Galen Weston and family – £13.5 billion

Kirsten and Jorn Rausing – £12 billion

Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken and Michel de Carvalho – £11.42 billion

Michael Platt – £10 billion

Alisher Usmanov – £10 billion

The Duke of Westminster and the Grosvenor family – £9.73 billion

Barnaby and Merlin Swire and family – £9.6 billion

Marit, Lisbet, Sigrid and Hans Rausing – £9.49 billion

Anil Agarwal – £9.2 billion

Denise, John and Peter Coates – £8.64 billion

John Fredriksen and family – £8.31 billion

Christoph Henkel and family – £8.308 billion

Mikhail Fridman – £8.22 billion

Moshe Kantor – £8 billion