By Julian Whittle

Last updated at 15:32, Friday, 07 December 2012

Kingmoor Park owner Brian Scowcroft and his sister Janet Lefton figure in a new list of the richest people in real estate.

Brian Scowcroft

The pair are 114th in the 2012 Estates Gazette Rich List with an estimated fortune of £162 million.

Mr Scowcroft set up Kingmoor Park industrial estate on the site of the former RAF Carlisle 14MU in 1999 in a joint venture with Carlisle City and Cumbria County councils. He subsequently bought them out.

He has raised a huge amount for charity and is a joint sponsor of the city’s Richard Rose academy schools.

The magazine says: “Scowcroft’s Kingmoor Park Properties operation saw its net assets rise in 2010-11 to £21.4m.

“He has ploughed around £7m of his own money into the site outside Carlisle, helping create more than 1,300 jobs.

“Before his property work, Scowcroft was boss of Swinton Insurance, started by his father in 1957.

“By the early 1990s, the Scowcroft family had made around £150m from the sale of the business.

“Lefton, his sister, runs BI Properties and Scowcroft has interests in a bottled water operation [Willow Water] in Morecambe Bay. Scowcroft is a sponsor of Carlisle’s fast-improving Richard Rose Academy.

“We can see £29m net assets in the family companies. In all, the family is worth £162m after tax.”

The Estates Gazette Rich List, now in its 10th year, shows that the 250 richest people in real estate have assets totalling £100.8bn.

It is the first time the combined fortune of the top 250 has broken the £100bn barrier.

First published at 15:30, Friday, 07 December 2012
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk