THE 20 richest people in the North West have been revealed – and home-grown billionaires rank high on the list.

Simon, Bobby and Robin Arora, from Sale, are the fourth richest people in the North West, according to the 2017 The Sunday Times Rich List.

The wealthy brothers, who earned their fortune with fast-growing discount retailer B&M, are worth £1.92bn.

B&M has experienced a rollercoaster ride on the stock market since the Brexit referendum but posted a strong final quarter in 2016, seeing sales rise 20.5% on the same period the year before. It is now valued at £2.97bn.

The siblings remain in the same position as 2016, with no change in wealth.

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

Whittaker, 75, is the owner of Manchester’s Trafford Centre, part of Intu properties, as well as Salford’s MediaCityUK and several airports.

He was the only one in the top 20 of the Northwest Rich List to see a decrease in wealth, down £140m on the last year.

But Whittaker still sits comfortably in the region at number three, with his family fortune totalling £2.2bn.

Also included in the rich list is The Duke of Westminster, who comes in at number one, with £9.52bn, up £170m on last year, and brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa, who fall into the billionaires’ camp for the first time this year with a £1bn fortune grown from garage forecourts.

The 2017 Sunday Times Rich List - the definitive guide to wealth in the United Kingdom - is published on Sunday, May 7.

The 160-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.

Robert Watts, the compiler of The Sunday Times Rich List 2017, said: “This year’s larger than ever Rich List lays bare how the fortunes of Britain’s richest 1,000 people have fared amid the astonishing events of the past 12 months.

“Our North West list is an intriguing mix of old money and new, with the head of long-running family businesses rubbing shoulders with some of the country’s most exciting new entrepreneurial talent.

“The Issa brothers’s petrol stations operation, the Arora family and the founders of the fast-growing Boohoo fashion business show how quickly fortunes can be built.

“While in the fresh-faced new Duke of Westminster - now arguably the nation’s most eligible bachelor - old money tops our Northwest Rich List. But will these new c

challengers catch-up the 26-year-old Duke and his family? It will be fascinating to watch.”

For more information, see thesundaytimes.co.uk/richlist2017.