City of London, Bankers and Alliance have raised their dividends for 52 consecutive years. Following closely behind is Caledonia, which has raised its dividends for 51 years in a row.

There are another 20 dividend ‘hero’ investment companies that have increased their dividends for more than 20 years, listed below:

A growing dividend should be important to investors relying on their investments to provide an income. It means that their income grows ahead of inflation year on year, unlike with a fixed income investment where the income remains the same.

Job Curtis, fund manager on the City of London trust, which has the longest record of consecutive dividend increases, said: “At the core of City of London’s portfolio are companies that can consistently grow their profits and dividends. I also like a relatively diversified portfolio across companies and sectors to benefit from different stages of the economic cycle and to reduce risk. Even the very largest companies can have sudden severe problems, such as when BP had to stop paying a dividend after the Macondo oil disaster in 2010.

“City of London could not have achieved the 52 years of continuous dividend growth without being an investment trust. In the good years for dividends, we retain some earnings to add to our revenue reserves. During periods of dividend cuts, we can draw down our revenue reserve to continue increasing our dividend. In the 27 years that I have been City of London’s fund manager, we have used the revenue reserves seven times. The investment trust structure undoubtedly has significant advantages in providing investors with consistent growth in income.”