MERSEYSIDE’S most wealthy are growing their fortunes despite the downturn, the annual Sunday Times Rich List revealed.

Liverpool One developer and chairman of trustees for the Grosvenor Estate, The Duke of Westminster increased his personal wealth by 4% in the past year, and is now said to be worth £6.75bn.

He led the North West list and was ranked third in the UK thanks to his huge property portfolio’s much-improved performance, and the recovery of the retail sector which has helped buoy Liverpool One.

Second richest in the region is pools magnate Lord Granchester and the Moores family with an unchanged fortune of £1.2bn, dropping him to 45th nationally.

It wasn’t a good 12 months for Peel Holdings supremo John Whitaker.

The 68-year-old – whose firm own Liverpool John Lennon Airport and Mersey Docks and Harbour Company – saw his wealth drop by £240m to £1.06bn.

But it’s been a better year for Matalan founder John Hargreaves, 66, who is once more a billionaire, thanks to a refinancing deal for the Skelmersdale-based budget shopping outfit which now sees the former Liverpool market trader rated as the UK’s 51st most wealthy, with an estimated fortune of £1.02bn.