Britain’s 600 aristocratic families have doubled their wealth in the last decade and are as ‘wealthy as at the height of Empire’ Exclusive: Groundbreaking study finds hereditary titles are now worth average of at least £16m, we can reveal

Britain’s aristocrats have enjoyed a dramatic surge in their wealth in the last 30 years – and have seen their riches double in the last decade.

A hereditary title is now worth an average of more than £16m – nearly twice the value it stood at prior to the 2007 financial crisis, i can reveal.

Their fortunes contrast starkly with the decade experienced by the vast majority of Britons where overall productivity has stagnated and inflation-adjusted wages remain stuck at 2005 levels. Since the Thatcher era, the value of a hereditary title has also increased four-fold.

The pioneering research, based on data from the wills of nearly 2,000 title holders, demolishes the widespread image of a bumbling British aristocracy in genteel decline by showing that many of its present day members are canny investors.

Victorian ancestors

On average, Britain’s 600 or so aristocratic families are now as wealthy as their Victorian forebears at the height of Britain’s imperial expansion.

The ten largest aristocratic personal fortunes left in the last decade add up to £1.06bn when adjusted to reflect current purchasing power.

At the head of the league of aristocratic wealth stands the high-profile figure of Hugh Grosvenor, 7th Duke of Westminster, who will eventually inherit the personal fortune worth some £659m in 2019 prices left by his father following his death in 2016.

The 28-year-old’s total family wealth, held in separate trust funds, is put at some £9bn.

‘The aristocracy prospered under the era of financial deregulation’

But the standings also include lesser known figures, including the family of John Vane, the 11th Baron Barnard, who presided over a 60,000-acre Northumberland estate and left £94m in 2016; and the 8th Earl Bathurst.

The Earl is perhaps best remembered for once giving chase to a car breaking rules for driving on the family’s Gloucestershire estate. It was only when he was himself intercepted by a vehicle containing plainclothes police that the peer, who left £54m in 2011, realised he was pursuing a youthful Prince William. It was only when he was himself intercepted by a vehicle containing plainclothes police that the peer, who left £54m in 2011, realised he was pursuing a youthful Prince William.

The study by two academics at London South Bank University, which involved consulting more than a million wills, casts rare light on the usually closely-guarded secret of the finances of the nation’s dukes, marquesses, earls, viscounts and barons by showing that the minimum value of one of these titles now stands on average at £16.1m. The same figure, adjusted to reflect current purchasing power, stood at £4.2m between 1978 and 1987.

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The four-fold increase in the figure suggests that the aristocracy has prospered spectacularly under the era of financial deregulation and economic liberalisation ushered in by Margaret Thatcher when she came to power in 1979.

The figures, based on the settled estates or probates of 1,706 members of the nobility dating back to 1858, also only tell part of the story of aristocratic wealth by showing the minimal personal wealth of title holders. The total fortune of the often secretive elite is likely to be far higher because in many cases other family wealth – including land, property and assets such as art collections or investment portfolios – is held in separate trusts which are not open to scrutiny.

‘They are people of the world’

Dr Matthew Bond, senior lecturer in sociology at LSBU, who compiled the data with colleague Dr Julien Morton, told i: “There is a lot of work from the field of history and literature that essentially argues that aristocrats were a bit useless, that they concentrated on the values of nobility and duty and money didn’t matter so much.

“We would argue that isn’t so much the case. The fact that their wealth has been so resilient would seem to indicate that they are people of the world rather than dwindling standard bearers of ancient values.”

The figures represent a sharp recovery in the fortunes of the nobility, which went into dramatic decline during the Second World War and the post-war consensus, which brought in more progressive taxation and the welfare state. From a pre-war high of £23m, average fortunes fell to £4.9m by 1967 before rocketing again by the 1980s.

Financial crisis

The data suggests that Britain’s wealthiest aristocrats have weathered the economic problems caused by the 2008 financial crisis, apparently using existing assets to take advantage of low interest rates to buy up stocks and shares and other investments which have rocketed in value. In the decade to 2007, the average wealth of the nobility stood at £8.9m – suggesting it has nearly doubled in the decade since.

Dr Morton said: “The asset-owning super-rich to the extent that they include the aristocracy would appear to have benefited during the period after the financial crisis from factors such as quantitative easing which allowed them to use those assets to secure mortgages and debts to buy further assets.”

The data underlines the entrenched nature aristocratic wealth and the tight-knit social circles in which many title holders move.

Eton and Harrow

Of the ten largest probates between 2008 and 2018, seven of the deceased attended Eton or Harrow, with the remaining three also attending major public schools. Six of the ten went to either Oxford or Cambridge universities.

Dukes, which represent the highest and often oldest rank of the aristocracy, are also the wealthiest, leaving an average inflation-adjusted fortune of £48m since 1958.

The next echelons of marquesses, earls and viscounts were worth £14.5m and £11.2m, while the far more numerous barons (totalling more than 800 title holders, including the father of former Chancellor George Osborne) were worth on average £9.3m.

Privileged position

Critics of the aristocracy said the findings strengthened the argument that the nobility have succeeded in shoring up a privileged position in British society.

Labour MP Chris Bryant, whose book on the nobility – A Critical History of the British Aristocracy – was published in 2017, told i: “For more than a century, the landed aristocracy have been moaning about their terrible impoverishment. Ostentatiously sitting in dilapidated drawing rooms with buckets and pails catching drips from the beautiful but bowed stucco ceiling, they have extended the begging bowl.

“Yet the last century has seen many do remarkably well. The end result is that the great old landed, crested and hallmarked families of the United Kingdom are still in possession of most of the land and a large part of the wealth of the nation.”

Financial brink

The LSBU data suggests that aristocratic families have an enduring ability to bounce back from the financial brink.

When the 17th Earl of Devon died in 1998, he left just £121,000 and forced his successors to seek fresh sources of income, including opening the family seat, Powderham Castle, as a heritage site.

By the time of the death in 2015 of the 18th earl, Hugh Courtenay, he left a legacy of £47.5m.

Dr Bond said: “There are always families that don’t do well but there is also an interesting degree of resilience in the aristocracy. When you do have a disaster or a massive drop in wealth, quite often there seems to be recovery. Very often we’ve noticed that families in possession of a title can have periods where their personal wealth goes down considerably but then it rebounds within a generation or two.”

Supporting and shaping communities

The study takes no view on the societal role of the nobility, whose supporters argue that they play a valuable role in supporting – and shaping – rural communities through large estates and farming businesses. Separate research last year confirmed that just under a third of all land in England and Wales is owned by members of the aristocracy.

The authors of the latest research said further work is needed to establish the extent of the influence of the aristocracy now that the veil over their fortunes has been partially lifted.

Dr Morton said: “The view of the aristocracy has long been clouded by assumptions and prejudices. It may well be the case that having a rich and vital aristocracy is good for the country. We are interested in understanding this group as objectively and deeply as possible.”