A Kent family has appeared in the top 20 of the UK rich list once again – despite their vast fortune taking a hit in the past year.

Barnaby Swire, who lives in Chartham, near Canterbury, features in the rankings compiled by The Sunday Times.

The newspaper reports that ‘Barnaby and Merlin Swire and family’ are worth £9.25 billion, dropping three places since last year.

Meanwhile, Sir Roger De Haan - the man behind the transformation of Folkestone seafront, who made his fortune through the sale of Saga - has seen his wealth again drop over the past year.

He and his brother Peter are now worth a combined £813 million, down £13 million, but the pair managed to climb 10 places to 195th.

Caravan park magnate Peter Harris, who bought his first leisure facility in Whitstable in 1964, saw his fortune rise by £51 million, up to £1.791 billion and moving up to 94th on the list.

But it pales in comparison with the wealth of the Swire family.

Barnaby Swire, who was educated at Eton and Oxford University, is the chairman of global corporation the Swire Group, while Merlin is managing director.

The Swire Group’s wealth comes from industry, transport and property, according to The Sunday Times.

It reports that the family conglomerate has a large stake in Cathay Pacific and extensive holdings in Asia.

Sir John Swire, Barnaby’s father, was a former chairman of the Swire Group. He lived in Selling, near Faversham, and died aged 89 in 2016.

Barnaby Swire’s wife Camilla has been an active campaigner on housing developments in the Canterbury area.

In 2021, she launched a legal challenge in an effort to quash outline planning permission for the 400-home Cockering Farm development on the outskirts of Thanington.

But the judicial review was rejected by the High Court in 2022.

Mrs Swire was also instrumental in halting a bid to demolish the abandoned Thruxted Mill lbetween Canterbury and Ashford and replace it with a housing estate.

Developers hoping to build 20 homes pledged to decontaminate the site at an estimated cost of £1.75 million - and the proposals were given outline permission.

Gopi Hinduja and his family, which is behind the Indian conglomerate Hinduja Group, topped the Rich List for the fourth consecutive year, recording a wealth of £35.3 billion.

The list saw a fall in the number of billionaires for the third year running, from 165 to 156, amid criticism on policies by the new Labour government.

Inventor Sir James Dyson and Manchester United part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe were also among billionaires in the top tier of the annual list of wealthy Britons.

The Rausing family, which has links to Kent including a sprawling wild boar farm in Tenterden and an even larger estate in Wadhurst next to Bewl Water on the border with Sussex, came in at 11th.

Kirsten Rausing benefited from inheritance, with a stake in her grandfather’s packaging business Tetra Laval, which revolutionised storing drinks such as milk and orange juice in cartons over glass bottles.

The Swedish businesswoman is heavily involved in horse racing and her husband Jorn Rausing co-owns Tetra Laval.