Two-thirds of Britain’s ultra-wealthy individuals are actively considering leaving the country, according to a survey of 200 multi-millionaires each worth at least £50 million, carried out by accountancy firm BDO. The primary driver is not the level of taxation itself, but rather a widespread perception that the government cannot provide a stable fiscal framework.
Forty-two percent of those surveyed pointed to inconsistent tax policies as the main reason for contemplating relocation. Just 18 percent cited high tax rates alone. The distinction is important. Britain has long taxed at rates comparable to or higher than its European competitors, yet the ultra-rich have typically stayed. What has shifted the calculus, according to BDO, is a series of policy reversals and threatened reforms under Labour, particularly around inheritance tax and capital gains tax, that have left wealthy individuals unable to plan with any certainty.
Elsa Littlewood, a tax partner at BDO, noted that many of those considering departure would prefer to remain but feel unable to conduct long-term wealth planning against an unpredictable policy backdrop.
Since Labour took office, a string of high-profile moves has underlined the trend. Hedge fund manager Michael Platt relocated his family office to Dubai. Shipping magnate John Fredriksen listed his £250 million Chelsea townhouse for sale. Former Goldman Sachs Europe banker Richard Gnodde moved to Milan, while brothers Ian and Richard Livingstone shifted their primary residence to Monaco. Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, a British resident for nearly three decades, moved to Dubai, as did Egyptian businessman Nassef Sawiris.
The exodus gained momentum when Chancellor Rachel Reeves abolished non-domicile status, a long-standing tax arrangement that had helped make Britain attractive to internationally mobile wealth. A proposed 40 percent inheritance tax on worldwide assets drew such strong pushback it was later watered down, but confidence had already been dented.
Reeves’s second Budget in November added to the uncertainty. After signalling possible increases to capital gains tax, she ultimately left CGT largely unchanged but raised rates on savings and dividends and introduced what critics called a “mansion tax” on higher-value properties. Few had anticipated that combination of measures.
Maxwell Marlow of the Adam Smith Institute warned that without any replacement scheme to attract wealthy investors’ capital and spending, the broader population would bear the cost of lost economic activity.
The takeaway from BDO’s research for businesses that rely on access to high-net-worth capital is straightforward: it is not the size of the tax bill driving people away, but the inability to predict what that bill will look like next year. Certainty, it appears, has become the scarcest commodity in British fiscal policy.