PLAID leader Leanne Wood made a radical call yesterday for legislation to rebalance Britain’s wealth and power away from the hands of the few.

Her demand came in response to the Sunday Times’s publication of its annual Rich List, which confirmed that the rich are still getting richer and the poor yet poorer.

The collective wealth of the country’s richest 1,000 people has reached a colossal combined fortune of £547.1 billion, the list revealed.

This figure has more than doubled since a total of £249.6bn was recorded in 2005, despite the world economy being gripped by a punishing recession for much of the last decade.

The 2015 list includes 117 billionaires, up from 104 last year.

They account for a total wealth of £325.131bn and 80 of them are based in London — meaning that the capital has more billionaires than any other city in the world.

In response to the lavish display of wealth, Plaid Cymru’s Ms Wood called for an economic rebalancing Bill to move the economy away from financial services and banking and towards areas like manufacturing and engineering.

She wanted the legislation to also include measures to prioritise poorer areas for infrastructure spending and investment.

“Today’s publication of the Rich List boosts the already overwhelming case for rebalancing wealth throughout the UK,” Ms Wood said.

“The fact that the number of billionaires has increased shows that austerity is benefiting the wealthiest to the detriment of those who are struggling to make ends meet.”

As well as rebalancing Britain’s economy she also called for parity of devolution powers for both Scotland and Wales.

Millionaires now need a fortune of at least £100 million to make it on to the Sunday Times’s list.

The threshold is £15m higher than last year’s minimum, while in 1997 it took a personal wealth of “just” £15 million to make the grade.

London-based, Soviet-born businessman Len Blavatnik, whose empire includes the Warner Music Group, was at the summit this year, with an estimated fortune of £13.17bn.

“The Sunday Times Rich List proves the need for two things — one is the introduction of the non-dom rule so those with the most pay their fair share of tax,” said the Tax Justice Network’s Richard Murphy.

“The second is more effective measures to tackle tax avoidance that fuels the growth of the wealth of the many at the cost of everyone else.”