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LONDON – A record number of millionaires are expected to leave the United Kingdom this year, according to new research, and this year's general election is expected to exacerbate the exodus.
The Henley Private Wealth Migration Report suggests that Britain will see a net loss of 9,500 high-net-worth individuals in 2024 – more than double last year's figure of 4,200 (which was itself a record).
The UK came second only to China in Henley's rankings, with the East Asian giant expected to see a net inflow of 15,200 millionaires in 2024.
These forecasts represent a stark shift for Britain, which was once seen as a major location for the world's super-rich. Henley, a consulting firm that tracks migration trends, notes that between the 1950s and the early 2000s, the country saw large groups of wealthy families move to its shores from across continental Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
She added in her report: “But this trend began to decline about a decade ago, as more millionaires began to leave the country and fewer of them entered.”
The research added: “It is worth noting that during the six-year period from 2017 to 2023 after Brexit, the UK lost a total of 16,500 millionaires due to immigration. The provisional estimates for 2024 are even more worrying.”
Hannah White, chief executive of the Institute for Government Research, noted that the exodus of millionaires could accelerate with the general election this year.
Recent opinion polls showed that the center-left Labor Party is significantly ahead of its competitor, the right-wing Conservative Party. An opinion poll conducted by Savanta for the Telegraph newspaper, and published at the weekend, showed that the Labor Party obtained 46% of the votes, more than double the Conservative Party, which obtained 21%, while the right-wing populist Reform Party was not far behind at 13%.
Labor has positioned itself as a pro-business party with an emphasis on wealth creation. However, her election manifesto is also clear that it plans to target loopholes that benefit the wealthy in order to better fund public services. She pledged to close tax loopholes for so-called non-resident individuals, reduce tax evasion, remove tax breaks for independent schools, and increase taxes on purchases of residential property by non-UK residents.
“The outflow of high-net-worth individuals already resulting from the economic and political context is now being accelerated by pre-election political decisions,” White wrote in the Henley Report.
“On top of the 40% tariffs already imposed on properties above the £325,000 ($412,420) threshold, the Conservative government has adopted the Labor opposition policy direction of ending the UK non-resident tax regime from 2025. For those educating… “For children in the UK's highly respected private school sector, Labor's commitment to scrap the 20% VAT exemption enjoyed by private schools would be another unwelcome development,” White added.
The number of millionaires in the UK has fallen by 8% over the past decade, according to Henley, in stark contrast to most other major economies across Europe and beyond. For example, the number of high-net-worth individuals in Germany rose by 15% during this period, while the number in the United States jumped by 62%.
Correction: Key points in an earlier version of this article missed the UK's net loss for millionaires in 2023.
— CNBC's Jenny Reid contributed to this report.
