No. 5 Trevor Hemmings
Former brickie’s hot property
One-time brickie’s apprentice Trevor has increased his wealth by a massive £500m, since the first Vocational Rich List five years ago, to £980m - putting him in fifth place in this year’s rankings.
After his apprenticeship Trevor built up his own housebuilding firm, which he sold in the early 1970s for £1.5m - just before the collapse of the property market - to the late Sir Fred Pontin. He became Sir Fred’s his right hand man and when Pontin’s was taken over, assembled a management buyout in 1987.
Within two years he’d sold the business to Scottish & Newcastle for a share stake and since then has built a substantial property to leisure empire with the emphasis mostly on Blackpool - including Blackpool Tower which cost him £74m in 1998. Two years later he bought the Littlewoods pools operation from the Moores family for £161m.