THE brothers behind Birchwood-based Betfred have lost £100 million – but their combined more than £1 billion wealth makes them the fourth richest people in the north west.

The edition of The Sunday Times Rich List is published on Sunday and includes the top 20 richest people in the north west.

The Duke of Westminster tops the list and remains the UK’s youngest billionaire.

The 28-year-old has seen the family fortune grow by £136million this year, cementing his position as the richest person in the north west . The Grosvenor family seat is at Eaton Hall, near Chester.

The family’s wealth stems from the 300 acres of Mayfair and Belgravia it owns in London, together with land in Cheshire, Oxford, Scotland and Spain.

Om fifth are Fred and Peter Done, who run BetFred in Birchwood. They have a combined wealth of £1.25 billion

Tom Morris ranks second in the region, up £100million in the past year as his Home Bargains shopping chain became Merseyside’s biggest employer.

John Whittaker, ranked fourth in the north west, tells a different story of the high street, with two collapsed bids for the Intu shopping centre operation. Whittaker, 77, is sdown £300m from last year to stand at £1.95bn.

Robert Watts, the compiler of The Sunday Times Rich List, said: ““It’s easy to get the impression that the rich only ever getter richer – but three of the five wealthiest entries in our north west Rich List have actually seen the size of their fortunes fall over the past year. The super-rich certainly have not been immune to the cyclone of change blowing through the high street.

“The billionaires Tom Morris and Philip Day illustrate that there is still money to be made from conventional retail. But Mahmud Kamani and Lawrence Jones are showing with Boohoo and UKFast that the north west has cutting edge online retail and tech firms.”

The 2019 Sunday Times Rich List – contained in a 156-page special edition of The Sunday Times Magazine – is the definitive guide to wealth in the United Kingdom, published on Sunday.

The complete list will be available to the paper’s digital subscribers and will be online at thesundaytimes.co.uk/richlist2019