13. Roger & Peter De Haan
£840m
Saga Leisure
2008: £840m (No change)
Roger De Haan, 60, who still works 50- to 60-hour weeks in "retirement", set up the Creative Foundation to buy run-down properties in the faded port of Folkestone.
The plan was to renovate them to a high standard and let them to artists at lower than commercial rents; the vibrant atmosphere would, in turn, attract businesses and further investment.
The foundation has spent £26m buying and renovating 45 properties, and the continuing operation will be funded increasingly by rental income.
The aim is to have 100 properties and 800-900 tenants by 2010. That De Haan can afford such generosity is due in no small measure to his late father, who developed Saga out of the family's Folkestone hotel after the war.
He filled the rooms off-season with pensioners, and so popular did it prove that he took it forward and developed Saga as a holiday company for the elderly.
Roger De Haan took over the running of the company in 1984 and sold up in October 2004 to a private equity business in a £1.35bn deal. By then it had developed far beyond its original holiday operation.
De Haan was characteristically generous with the proceeds and gave £15m away to staff.
After the deal was completed, many newspapers, including the Financial Times and other quality papers, talked about De Haan as a billionaire. We take a slightly more cautious line.
After stripping out any debt we allow at least £400m for tax as Roger De Haan has firmly set his back on becoming a tax exile because of his commitment to Folkestone.
His brother, Peter, 57, had been finance director, but now runs his own business in wine and marketing; this is worth perhaps £120m.
In addition, Roger bought Peter out of some of his shares in an earlier £81m deal. In recent years, the De Haan family has also taken out around £30m in dividends from Saga.
Any of the recent spending on Folkestone should easily have been offset by rising investment income. So, allowing for that £400m tax bill (which would buy a lot of new schools or hospitals) and charitable donations, we reckon the De Haan family should be worth £840m.