THE 20 richest people in the North West have been revealed – and home-grown billionaire siblings the Aroras have shot up the list.  

Simon, Bobby and Robin Arora, from Sale, rank fourth in the region’s richest people in the 2016 The Sunday Times Rich List.

The wealthy brothers, who earned their fortune with fast-growing discount retailer B&M, are worth £1.92bn and come in at 55 in the overall list. 

The entrepreneurs acquired the chain store in December 2004 from Phildrew Investments, at which time the company traded from 21 stores.

In 2016, B&M, which sells branded goods from food and toiletries to toys and electricals, opened its 500th store.  The business also operates under the JA Woll brand in Germany.

B&M has been hugely rewarding for the brothers, who have seen their wealth rise by £170m in the past 12 months to stand at £1.92bn. They sold £204m of shares in the business last July after a £2.7bn float a year earlier.

Their remaining stake in the B&M business is worth £704m and they have other property assets in the Far East and the UK.

The Aroras are one rank below property billionaire John Whittaker, who comes in third on the North West list.

Whittaker owns the Trafford Centre, part of Intu Properties, and also Salford's MediaCityUK. His aviation group owns four airports, including Liverpool John Lennon.

His latest plans include Liverpool Waters, a £5.5bn regeneration scheme to create 20,000 jobs, 9,000 houses and 3m sq ft of commercial development. Based on the Isle of Man, Whittaker, who ranks 47th overall, is worth £2.34bn, down £30m on last year.

The 2016 Sunday Times Rich List – the definitive guide to wealth in Britain and Ireland – is published on Sunday, April 24. The 148-page special edition of The Sunday Times Magazine is the biggest issue of the Rich List ever published since it first appeared in 1989. 

It charts the wealth of the 1,000 richest people in the UK and the 250 richest in Ireland.