As the Labour government careers towards its second Autumn Budget, the wealth sector has been sounding the alarm on the number of high net worth individuals (HNWI) leaving the country in response to policy and tax changes. Several studies have suggested the issue is widespread, with record numbers of millionaires forecast to depart the UK.

However, the full picture may not be so simple. The UK is still seen as an attractive destination for many HNWIs, with its pull of strong education, legal, and regulatory systems potentially outweighing the relatively high, and increasing, tax burden.

Exodus

A recent study by Henley & Partners revealed that 16,500 HNWIs holding a combined £66bn in liquid investable assets were set to leave the UK this year, the largest single-year exodus of millionaires from a country on record. This also follows 10,800 HNWIs departing the UK in 2024, according to the same research.

The report pointed to two policy shifts in recent years that accelerated the trend that started with Brexit: the closure of the tier 1 investment visa in 2022 and changes to the non-dom regime and inheritance tax (IHT) in 2024.

Henley & Partners CEO, Dr. Juerg Steffen, said that 2025 marked a pivotal moment: “For the first time in a decade of tracking, a European country leads the world in millionaire outflows,” he said.

“This isn’t just about changes to the tax regime. It reflects a deepening perception among the wealthy that greater opportunity, freedom, and stability lie elsewhere.”

This was supported by research commissioned by Arton Capital, which found that 60 per cent of UK-based millionaires believed they would have a better quality of life abroad.
Foreign schemes such as golden visas and citizenship as an investment vehicle are providing UK HNWIs with pathways to moving jurisdictions, with 82 per cent voicing interest in investing through such programmes.

Speaking to Wealth Investment News, Fladgate private client partner, Jonathan Riley, says he expects the exodus of HNWIs from the UK to continue at a steady pace.

“The outflow of wealth from the UK started before the October 2024 Budget in recognition of what was to come and accelerated immediately afterwards,” Riley continues. “Many of those that have left did not have children at school and so could move quickly.

“This has evolved in two ways: First, we are now seeing a second wave of people leaving, namely those who needed to plan further in advance, which tells me that the exodus is being continued by those who have evaluated their options over the last year and have decided they are better served by living elsewhere.

“Secondly, those leaving are increasingly not ‘non-doms’ who are frequently categorised as ‘internationally mobile’. Instead, UK entrepreneurs and families who own and operate businesses are leaving the UK.

“Significantly, far fewer people are coming to the UK. Previously, a steady flow of wealthy and/or entrepreneurial arrivers would replace those leaving; the number of these arrivers appears to have reduced significantly.”

Tax changes and rumours

While alarm bells began to ring in the years preceding the 2024 Autumn Budget, they started to become deafening after the announcements made in October last year. The abolition of the non-dom regime to be replaced by the Foreign Income and Gains (FIG) regime, which included the ending of offshore trusts to shelter assets from IHT, alongside an increase in capital gains tax (CGT), changes to Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief, and bringing pensions into scope of IHT, have caused concern.

“A clear narrative that is replayed to me is that the UK now sees private wealth as a resource to tax and that the government is ‘anti-wealth’,” says Riley.

“This message is being shared amongst the wealth advisory and investment community and communicated to me from many sources. The UK can still claim to be one of the global leaders in providing wealth advisory services – the difference now is that clients might access these services whilst keeping themselves and their wealth outside the UK.”

These sentiments were not helped by persistent speculation that the government could introduce some kind of wealth tax as it seeks to balance the books. Rumours swirled after the government seemingly did not rule out a wealth tax in some form, adding fuel to the fire that the UK would be seen as ‘anti-wealth’.

Arton Capital’s study showed that 53 per cent of UK-based millionaires would be more likely to consider leaving the UK if a wealth tax was introduced. While the government seems to be trying to distance itself from the idea of a wealth tax, the Trades Union Congress has called on Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, to consider introducing one following her announcement that the Autumn Budget would take place on 26 November.

Wealth inflows

While the recent overriding narrative has been one of negativity towards the UK as a global wealth hub, there is some evidence that overseas HNWIs still see the country as an attractive place to move to. A report from Altrata noted that while the self-imposed economic and trade restrictions had weakened the UK’s international standing, the enduring appeal of London’s culture, retail, commerce, and education to the wealthy, alongside the view it is a safe haven investment location for luxury real estate buyers, shone through.

Furthermore, with the ongoing geopolitical instability plaguing the world, HNWIs are beginning to prioritise safety, stability, and strong legal and regulatory foundations. This is making the UK an appealing prospect to many, with analysis from Taylor Wessing showing that US applications for UK citizenship increased by 25 per cent in the first half of 2025, and by 33 per cent year-on-year.

“These figures show that the trend of Americans applying for UK citizenship continues to increase,” said Taylor Wessing UK senior partner and private client partner, Nick Warr. “We've certainly seen an uptick in clients wishing to leave the US for the UK, with those clients expressing disquiet at the political discourse and the increasing social tensions in the US.”

Despite this, an imbalance between immigration and emigration remained, and while some HNWIS were looking to move back to the UK to take advantage of the FIG regime, Utmost Wealth Solutions warned that the UK was seeing a greater exodus of wealth than it was attracting.

The bigger picture

There are some in the industry who believe the issue of wealthy individuals leaving the UK is not as bad as many fear, highlighting the country’s status as a global wealth hub.

Speaking to Wealth Investment News, HSBC UK head of private banking, Charles Boulton, comments: "The UK is still an attractive place to move to due to its legal system, infrastructure, public services, and education system, and it's seen as a haven of security by many outside of the UK."

His colleague, HSBC UK head of ultra HNW, private banking, Paul Fairfoull, agrees with this sentiment: “We haven’t seen a flood of wealthy families leaving the UK. Wealth is being created in the UK; it is an area of innovation," he says.

"IHT changes are the largest issue clients have had to contend with, but it doesn't mean they have to leave. There are planning tools, such as life insurance, that can help clients with their financial planning.”

Whether the perceived exodus of wealth from the UK is an existential threat to its status as a global wealth hub or an overblown blip that will just be a bump in the road remains to be seen, but what is for certain is the next few years will be pivotal for the UK, and its government, in remaining or becoming an attractive place for HNWIs to live and do business.

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