Millionaires on the move? Britain can’t afford this wealth flight.
All around the world, money is on the move. Millionaire migration might seem like a niche narrative, but it sparks serious debate and can lead to major policy changes.
No individual dataset can be taken as flawless, but a number of different sources can be pooled that, taken together, paint a picture of where wealth is accumulating, gravitating towards, declining or even fleeing.
To the recent UBS annual Wealth Report (total UK wealth has declined) and even property data from the likes of Knight Frank (super-prime property sales slump) we can add the latest contribution from Henley and Partners, whose analysis claims that the UK is this year expected to see the largest net outflow of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) of any country since they started tracking millionaire migration a decade ago.
In every previous year, China has topped the table with the most millionaires leaving for other shores, but according to Henley and Partners, the UK will this year claim the crown with over 16,500 millionaires forecast to leave.
Some of these people will be merely well-off, heading for an easier life in Dubai, while others could be Ultra HNWIs leaving the UK in anticipation of the Chancellor’s inheritance tax grab. In this context, Nigel Farage’s proposal to build a new tax regime specifically for the very rich is at least intellectually interesting.
While tax experts have described his one-off £250,000 payment in place of the old non-dom regime as “bonkers” the Reform leader has at least made the case for welcoming the ultra-rich, rather than driving them out.
His proposal to hand the proceeds of their one-off payment directly to the lowest paid might be political panto, but he’s right to point out that as a country we’re surely better off attracting and retaining wealthy, successful individuals – even if it means tolerating a few oligarchs and dilettantes in the mix.
Worryingly, the Henley report notes that the UK’s relative decline as a destination of choice isn’t just about recent changes to the tax regime, it’s reflective of “a deepening perception among the wealthy that greater opportunity, freedom and stability lie elsewhere.”
Reform’s response to this state of affairs might not be terribly sophisticated, but as Zia Yusuf writes for us today, “clueless politicians have ramped up hostility to the world’s wealthy” – he’s right, and it’s going to cost us.