TWO York building firms have featured in the Top 20 List of Britain's Wealthiest Housebuilders.

The table was compiled by the authors of The Sunday Times Rich List and published in a special edition of the paper's Home supplement at the weekend.

Coming in at number seven on the list of the country's wealthiest housebuilders was the York-based Shepherd family, who own Shepherd Homes as part of the Shepherd Building Group, which also incorporates Portakabin and Shepherd Construction.

The list shows the Shepherd family as having wealth totalling £252 million in 2014, up £1 million from the previous year.

Increasing his wealth by £35 million from 2013 is Persimmon founder Duncan Davidson who was named as Britain's 14th wealthiest housebuilder.

His Fulford based business helped him amass fortunes of £155 million.

The combined Top 20 list saw the richest housebuilders enjoy a 22 per cent rise in their wealth to £5.536 billion, an increase of just over £1 billion on a year ago.

Top of the list of the richest housebuilders is John Bloor, founder of Leicestershire-based Bloor Homes, who has seen has personal fortune jump by £225 million to £750 million, an increase of 43 per cent in a year.