Revealed: The super-rich individuals who have profited from food and energy price spikes during the cost-of-living crisis
Families whose fortunes came from food and oil and gas have increased their wealth by up to 20% since 2022
Multi-millionaires and billionaires whose wealth has come from the food and energy sectors have seen their fortunes increase at three to four times the rate compared to other super-rich individuals during the cost-of-living crisis.
New analysis by War On Want, the charity fighting global poverty, has identified that while working families have struggled to afford rising food and energy bills since 2022, 15 super-rich UK-linked families have seen multi-million and even billion pound increases in their wealth.
Oil and gas tycoons Carrie and François Perrodo top the list, cashing in £3 billion as energy prices have spiked since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
This pair’s combined net worth now stands at £8 billion. They own Perenco UK Limited, one of Europe’s largest private oil and gas companies.
And with Donald Trump’s war on Iran putting further pressure on global energy markets, oil and gas company owners are likely to see their profits rise even further.
The owners of food chains including Carluccio’s, Giraffe and Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Ranjit and Baljinder Boparan and family have also seen their wealth soar.
Between 2022 and 2026, the Boparan’s increased their wealth by £1.37 billion.
Mohsin and Zuber Issa, the owners of EG Group Holdings, a petrol station company, have accrued a further £270 million in wealth, adding to their £5 billion net worth.
Jonathan Warburton and family, who own the sliced bread brand Warburton’s and have a net worth of over £700 million, have boosted their wealth by £185 million.
War on Want’s ‘Cashing in on crisis’ research, which they carried out with King’s College London academic Dr Ben Tippet, found that families on the Sunday Times Rich List whose fortunes came primarily from food saw their wealth surge by 15%, which is three times more than the Rich List average.
Families whose fortunes came primarily from oil and gas saw an even greater wealth increase of 20%, or four times the Rich List average, over the same period.
In 2025, anti-poverty charity Trussell Trust found more than 14 million people in the UK faced hunger due to a lack of money.
Analysis from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) also found that higher wholesale oil and gas prices since the start of the Iran War, on 28 February, will add an estimated £9.8 billion to UK energy and road transport costs over the next year.
Nuri Syed Corser, Economic Justice Lead at War on Want: “The super-rich are cashing in on the cost-of-living crisis. While millions of people have been driven into poverty and public services have been slashed, billionaire-owned companies are exploiting the soaring price of food and energy to make yet more money for the super-rich. It’s morally bankrupt.
“Burnham’s government must not sit idly by while the super-rich profit from our poverty. We’re calling on the government to tax the super-rich, introduce a limit on extreme wealth, and cooperate internationally through the United Nations to make the richest pay their fair share.”
You can read the full report here.
Photo credit: War on Want
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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