The 6th Duke Of Westminster

The Duke of Westminster stepped down as chairman of his Grosvenor Group on 1 May 2007, after 30 years at the helm of his family's property group. He is also retiring from the Territorial Army where he reached the rank of Major General.

The Duke leaves his property operations in fine fettle with prices rising sharply in central London. He has also spearheaded expansion overseas. In December 2005, Westminster splashed out £35m buying the Paul-Bert and Serpette flea markets in Paris. Traders were said to be delighted that a 'rosbif' is now their landlord.

In recent times, he has also spent another £35m acquiring land for a £40m apartment complex in Sydney, following on from a huge Hong Kong development. But the group, owned by the family trusts of the Duke of Westminster, is not neglecting its home patch. In 2004, plans for one of Bath's biggest ever developments were unveiled. Work will start by Grosvenor on Bath's Western Riverside by the end of 2007. The vast scheme will take 15-20 years to complete. Westminster is also behind the enormous Paradise St development in Liverpool.

Taking such a long view of course has helped Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster, to become the richest property developer in Britain. The range of his wealth is staggering, taking in vast estates in Lancashire and Cheshire, great swathes of central London, in Mayfair and Belgravia, and tracts of land in Scotland, Canada and around the world.

Grosvenor Group, his main property company, saw its profits rise 23% to £508m in 2006. Its net assets rose to £2.4bn. Within Grosvenor Group are the overseas holdings, the British development work and 100 acres of Mayfair. Separately, some 200 acres of Belgravia are held in family trusts which should be worth around £4bn, not quite twice the Grosvenor Group net assets. That would put a value of around £6.2bn on the total family assets, but when Westminster announced his retirement, the reports spoke of a company with £11bn of assets.

We are slightly more cautious and value the Grosvenor property assets at £6.5bn. Taking in the £62m in dividends that the family trusts have had from the Grosvenor Group since 1999, a valuable art collection and family properties, we reckon that Westminster and his family are now worth around £7bn.