London’s Wealthy Continue to Flee as Taxes Target Uber-Rich

The city, once considered the financial capital of the world, is still seeing high-net-worth individuals leave for new pastures.

London on March 19, 2021. Henry Nicholls/Reuters

The flight of high-net-worth individuals from the UK is continuing apace as millionaires and billionaires swap London for more attractive destinations around the world.

A recent high-profile person to announce his departure from the UK is billionaire John Fredriksen, who stated in July that he will now spend the bulk of his time in the United Arab Emirates.

Amid rumors that he had put his Georgian mansion in London’s Chelsea neighborhood on the market, the shipping magnate told Norwegian outlet E24 that “Britain has gone to [expletive].”

Fredriksen, who was born in Norway but now holds Cypriot citizenship, is currently listed as the ninth-richest person in the UK and the 136th-richest person in the world, with an estimated worth of $17.4 billion, according to Forbes.

His departure comes against a backdrop of economic difficulty in the world’s sixth-largest economy, which has seen wages stagnate and taxes rise since the crash of 2008.

The UK Office for Budget Responsibility predicted in March that the UK’s tax burden, measured as tax receipts as a percentage of gross domestic product, is expected to rise from 35.3 percent of gross domestic product in 2024–2025 to 37.7 percent in 2027–2028. This is higher than it was in 1948, when the country was still reeling from World War II.

According to a report published by Henley and Partners, a firm that advises the world’s rich on the best countries in which to live, per capita wealth in the UK is down by 10 percent in U.S. dollar terms since its 2007 pre-crisis peak, a stark shortfall in comparison with the United States, which saw its wealth per capita rise by 121 percent over the same period.

The firm estimates that the UK will lose 16,500 wealthy individuals in 2025, up from 10,800 in 2024.

Andrew Amoils, head of research at New World Wealth, which conducted the report for Henley and Partners, told The Epoch Times that London’s decline in prestige as a financial world center may be the main driver for this flight of wealth.

“The poor performance of the London Stock Exchange since the 2008 global financial crisis is probably the most glaring issue, especially when one compares it to the massive growth seen in the USA and Asian markets,” he said.

“The UK’s main equity index [the FTSE 100] is down by minus 20 percent since year-end 2007 when measured in [U.S. dollar] terms. This compares very poorly to growth of plus 134 percent in the MSCI World Index, plus 226 percent in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and plus 306 percent in the S&P 500 over the same period [December 2007 to December 2024].”

The United States and the UAE, meanwhile, are set to gain millionaires to the tune of 7,500 and 9,800, respectively, over the same period.

“I’m on my way out,” Bassim Haidar, a Nigerian-born Lebanese businessman who moved to the UK in 2010, told The Wall Street Journal. “There comes a time when you don’t feel welcome anymore, and it’s time to just start packing and leaving.”

The move to levy taxes on the uber-wealthy has been spearheaded by the left-wing Labour Party, which has been in power for a little more than a year after ousting the right-of-center Conservative Party, which had held power, in one form or another, from 2010 to 2024.

One of the most high-profile policies targeting the wealthy has been the abolition of the so-called non-dom tax status, which has existed in the UK for some 200 years.

Non-dom, short for non-domicile, describes a person who lives in the UK but whose permanent home for tax purposes is outside the country. It refers to a person’s tax status and has nothing to do with his or her nationality, citizenship, or resident status, although it can be affected by these factors.

A non-dom previously paid UK tax only on money earned in the UK and did not have to pay tax to the UK government on money made elsewhere in the world. However, this status was abolished by the Labour Party in April.

According to a report on the policy by London-based free market think tank the Adam Smith Institute, non-doms now face not only full UK personal taxation, but also taxation on the profits of any foreign entities that they control, leading in some cases to an effective tax rate of 67 percent.

Henley and Partners has also reported that other tax reforms, including a hike in inheritance tax and a 15 percent value-added tax on private school fees, have also contributed to millionaires and billionaires choosing to take themselves and their wealth overseas.

Reem Ibrahim, head of media at the Institute of Economic Affairs, a London-based free market think tank, also blamed tax rises and what she termed “increasingly hostile attitudes toward success.”

“The abolition of the non-dom tax status was particularly damaging, making the UK far less attractive to internationally mobile entrepreneurs and investors,” she told The Epoch Times. “On top of that, changes to inheritance tax have made it even harder.

“Overall, sluggish economic growth and an increasingly overbearing state have contributed to a growing sense that Britain punishes rather than rewards prosperity.”

Ibrahim also warned against introducing a wealth tax that has been much talked about in the country, saying it would be a “complete disaster.”

“The mere speculation is already having a chilling effect on confidence,“ she said. ”For the sake of growth, jobs, and Britain’s long-term competitiveness, the government should rule out a wealth tax altogether.”

Valentins Mucenieks, a Century 21 real estate agent who works in London, has also noticed that the market landscape is shifting, as some high-net-worth individuals are opting to leave the UK capital. He told The Epoch Times that because of recent non-dom tax changes, there has been a trend of some capital leaving the UK.

According to him, non-dom tax changes, high interest rates, and a drop in capital values are some of the reasons the rich are opting to make somewhere other than London their home. He also blamed lifestyle changes in the UK.

However, Mucenieks said that though the very high end of the market has seen a dip, there is still interest in the UK from those abroad—particularly those from the Far East and Middle East—both as an investment property and as a place for their children to live while studying in the UK.

“The UK is still very attractive in terms of education,” he said.

According to him, many people overseas send their children to study in the UK, where they have the option of either renting or buying a place to live. Although UK rents are at all-time highs, Mucenieks said, those who choose to buy a home can currently get it at “maybe [a] 30 percent discount from the peak of the market.”

“We’re seeing buyers continue to invest here because of London’s exceptional educational institutions and vibrant cultural life,” he said.

Feeling Unsafe

Safety has also been a high-profile concern in London, with a recent survey conducted by Survation for ITV News finding that 57 percent of women feel unsafe on the capital’s streets. This number rises to 68 percent among 18- to 24-year-olds. Additionally, half of the women surveyed said they believe that the city has become less safe over the past five years.

Police reports also do not paint a pretty picture of London life. The number of thefts in London is almost five times the national average and has been rising since the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns ended.

There has also been a rise in thefts outside the home, such as phone snatching, according to official figures.

Member of Parliament Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform UK Party, has also highlighted the issue of crime.

At a news conference on Aug. 4, he said: “I dare you to walk through the West End of London after 9 o'clock of an evening wearing jewelry. You wouldn’t do it. You know that I’m right. You wouldn’t do it, and that’s just in London—let alone what’s happening in so many other parts of the country, and the genuine fears.”

Farage’s comments are backed up by a recent study by the Policy Exchange think tank, which found that knife crime in London rose by 86 percent between 2014 and 2024 and is highly concentrated in areas such as the West End, which features tourist destinations such as Oxford Circus and Regent Street.

The report also found that most knife crime in London involves robbery, with cellphones the most common target.

In 2024, 61.6 percent of knife crime offenses in the UK capital were robberies, and Policy Exchange said that “London is in the grip of a crimewave of robbery, knife crime, and theft.”

Amoils told The Epoch Times in April that this safety issue was one of the key factors preventing wealthy individuals from moving to London or staying there. These more recent data indicate that crime remains an issue in London and the wider UK.

Despite the flight of the uber-rich, the UK Office for Investment, a division of the Department for Business and Trade, maintains that the UK is “the most open, stable and connected economy in the world.”