Mrs Bhs is the UK's richest woman

BILLIONAIRE Philip Green's wife spends most of her time looking after her two young children. But Christina Green is far from the average housewife. Not only does she have a home in the playground of the wealthy, Monaco, she has just been named the richest woman in Britain.

Her husband is the man behind Bhs, Miss Selfridge and Top Shop, and together they are worth £3.3bn - most of it in her name.

The couple top the British rich list for the first time, according to an exhaustive survey by US magazine Forbes.

Although the Greens have that home in Monaco, Philip Green remains a UK taxpayer because he spends more than 90 days a year here running his businesses. However, he ensured that when he bought Bhs in 2000 and Arcadia (which owns Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, Evans and Burton) in 2002, the transactions were in his wife's name.

It is unclear what role, if any, Mrs Green - known as Tina - plays in the running of the companies. In the past, her husband has joked that the vast sums paid into her bank account are 'housekeeping money'.

The couple, who married 15 years ago, live in a penthouse overlooking the Mediterranean. She has long been based in Monaco with their children Chloe, 14, and 12-year-old Brandon. That means she escapes the tax rules for citizens living in the UK.

Philip Green, 52, has been unapologetic about their tax arrangements. There is nothing illegal in the set-up and for him it is a clever move. He remains subject to UK tax on his personal income and his companies pay business taxes.

He confirmed that 'almost all' their wealth is in his wife's name even though she had no 'active day-to-day' role in the business. He said: 'We are hard-working people getting on with our jobs. This has been earned.' Of his wife, he said: 'She supports me and has played a full role in all of this.'

Though the Greens are top of the British list, they actually appear at number 68 on the worldwide dollar billionaires rich list. There are 24 British billionaires in the table of 691. JK Rowling is the only other British woman to make the list. She is worth an estimated $1bn (£520m). It is the second year she has appeared in the list, reflecting the continued cult status of her Harry Potter books. But the former single mother, who has sold more than 250m copies of her books, dropped from 552nd place to 620.

The Queen does not make the billionaires table but the Duke of Westminster comes in at number 80 with a fortune of £2.9bn. Lord (David) Sainsbury, of the supermarkets family, is worth £2.2bn, making him number 122 in world's rich list. Other Brits on the list include Sir Richard Branson and Bernie Ecclestone.

Eight new British faces make their debut on the list. They include real estate mogul John Whittaker, worth £883mn, and 80-year-old Paul Raymond, who made £727mn in real estate and publishing.

The highest riser was steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, who increased his net worth by £9.7bn to £ 13bn. The Indian tycoon is notorious in Britain for plunging Labour into a cash-for-favours row.

The richest man living in Britain is Roman Abramovich. The Chelsea football club owner was ranked 21st overall with a personal fortune of £6.9bn ($13.3bn). The 38-year-old tops the list of the wealthiest Russians.

New York has the highest concentration of billionaires, followed by Moscow and San Francisco. London and Los Angeles are next with 18 each. The total net worth of the 691 billionaires rose from $1.9 trillion last year to $2.2 trillion.