THE Duke of Westminster sits proudly at the top of the Daily Post’s Fortune 50 countdown – but even the aristocracy is not immune from the effects of the credit crunch.

OVER the past week the Daily Post has been raning the fifty richest people in our region and today we reach the top ten, which includes Sir Paul McCartney and some of Merseyside and Cheshire’s biggest business names.

The main aim of our list is to estimate what has happened to the region’s wealthiest people in the credit crunch. What is clear from this week’s lists is that anybody with investments in the property sector has been badly hit by current market conditions.

The Duke of Westminster’s Grosvenor property company last year celebrated the opening of Liverpool One, the £1bn retail and lesiure development that has changed the face of the city centre.

With property values falling across the board, even Grosvenor has had to engage in debt refinancing talks as it bids to avoid breaching its banking covenants

But others in the top 10 have been less affected by recession and some are even benefiting. Discount retail chains such as local firms Home Bargains and Matalan are seeing their fortunes rise as customers look for bargains – and both their founding families look set to see their fortunes rise in turn. Scrap metal dealers on the other hand are losing out.

Even some of those with interests in property are looking optimistically to the future. Steve Morgan’s return to the board of Redrow shows he is confident that the housebuilder can grow again when the market returns as the UK is still short of housing.

Remember, you can keep up to date with the latest news from the business world every day in the Daily Post and by visiting the LDP Business website at www.ldpbusiness.co.uk