More than half of the richest people in our region have seen their wealth increase over the last 12 months.

East Anglian Daily Times: Kirsten RausingKirsten Rausing (Image: Cambridge Newspapers 2002)

This weekend the annual Sunday Times Rich List is published, ranking the UK’s most valuable billionaires and millionaires.

Ahead of the full list details of the wealthiest people with connections to East Anglia have been released – with many having links to Suffolk and Essex.

Philip Beresford, compiler for the Sunday Times Rich List, said a good company reporting system helped the paper pull together the list accurately.

“We look at their accounts, you can see how much money they are making, we look at the share prices quoted on the Stock Exchange,” he said.

“Quite a lot of people cooperate. One bloke actually sends me his tax returns.”

At the top of the pile in the East, and also eighth in the country, is Kirsten and Jorn Rausing with a fortune of £8.7bn.

Their wealth comes from Switzerland-based packaging group Tetra Laval (their grandfather founded Tetra Pak) but Ms Rausing, aged 63, also owns two Suffolk stud farms.

Along with brother Jorn, 56, she is a leading shareholder in Tetra Laval. Mr Rausing also has a £185m stake in Ocado.

East Anglian Daily Times: Jon Hunt, former owner of Foxtons estate agencyJon Hunt, former owner of Foxtons estate agency (Image: Archant)

Estate agent Jon Hunt is the region’s only other billionaire, worth £1.25bn this year. Born in Colchester Mr Hunt sold his Foxtons estate agency chain for £375m at the height of the property boom.

A recent planning application for his Kensington Palace Gardens home in London will see a five-storey basement added to the property, housing his car collection and a tennis court.

The fourth richest person in the East is Ipswich Town owner Marcus Evans, whose wealth stayed the same at £765m.

The Earl of Iveagh and the Guinness family remain in third place on the list.

East Anglian Daily Times: Edward Atkin, managing director of Philips Avent.Edward Atkin, managing director of Philips Avent.

The family estate at Elveden Hall in Suffolk is home of the biggest lowland farm in the UK, producing mainly potatoes and onions.

The family retains a £200m stake in Diageo, which owns Guinness and has £44m of net assets in Elveden Farms and Burhill Estates. In Canada its British Pacific Properties owns 2,400 acres.

Edward Atkin is the founder of Avent, now Philips Avent, which specialises in making baby feeding products. The company is based in Sudbury and Mr Atkin’s family fortune stands at £267m, no change from 2015.

Paul Day is the managing director of Turners (Soham) Ltd, the trucking firm with a 40 acre site in Newmarket as its headquarters. Mr Day’s family wealth of £255m is the same as his entry in last year’s rich list.

The Gredley family, with father Bill, son Tim and daughter Pollyanna, run the Unex Group of real estate investors and developers.

Tim is also a showjumper based in the United States and has represented Great Britain. Together the family is valued at £194m this year, £30m more than in 2015.

James and Selina Hopkins are new entries on the Suffolk top 20 Rich List. Mrs Hopkins is the daughter of Lord and Lady Tollemache (her father is Suffolk’s former Lord Lieutenant) while her husband set up Hopkins Homes.

Together they are worth £150m.

Alfie Best is the highest new entry in the region, ranking 16th, with a fortune of £160m.

A Romany born at the side of a road in Leicester he has gone on to make his fortune from caravans with Essex-based Wyldecrest; two of its sites are in Suffolk.

Michael Lynch, born in Essex, founded the software company Autonomy Corporation. His wealth remained at £470m.

Mr Beresford said one thing almost all the country’s richest had in common was how they made their cash – business.

He said: “Eighty percent of the wealth is business wealth in one form or another.

“You get relatively rich by being a rock star or a footballer but you don’t get to billionaire status. Owning a business is by far the best way to become rich.”

Mr Beresford added making the millions – and billions – is only half the challenge: “They don’t spend their time idling by the pool, you have to work for it and you have to work for it even when you’re rich to keep it.”

Ensuring their businesses continue to thrive is also something at the front of the minds of the super-rich. Many bring up their children with the aim of handing over the reigns when they are old enough.

Mr Beresford also said a lot of wealthy businessmen and women remain loyal to the communities they know, remaining large employers in the area and taking pride in the respect this generates.