Monday 05 October 2026 12:50 pm
A host of high-profile residents have left the UK since 2024
Britain has shed more than half its billionaire wealth in the past two years, fresh research has shown, reviving fears over the scale of the UK’s wealth exodus just days after it emerged that one of the country’s richest men has moved to Monaco.
According to an analysis of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, super-rich UK residents worth a combined $160bn (£121bn) have either left or loosened ties with UK since 2024 after the Labour government announced a succession of measures clamping down on wealth.
The figure represents more than half of all billionaire wealth in the UK, the analysis said, and comprises the fortunes of a slew of high-profile entrepreneurs including steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, Aston Villa co-owner Nassef Sawiris and shipping magnate John Fredriksen.
Since entering office two years ago, ministers have unveiled a string of tax reforms aimed at reducing wealth inequality in the UK and raising revenue. Among the most high-profile changes are the decision to end inheritance tax carve-outs applied to farms and family businesses, the introduction a mansion tax on homes worth more than £2m and ploughing ahead with a pre-election promise to abolish the non-dom regime, a centuries-old carve out allowing wealthy foreigners to pay tax only on income and assets in the UK.
But the changes – combined with persistent speculation over similar crackdowns at future Budgets – have been attributed to driving record numbers of super-rich residents overseas in a pattern that advisers have branded a ‘wealth exodus‘.
Magda Wierzycka has said she would have stay in Britain if the government u-turned on its changes to the non-dom regime (Photo by Alon Skuy/Sunday Times/Gallo Images/Getty Images)Wealth exodus ‘hugely damaging’ for UK
Magda Wierzycka, the founder and chief executive of Sygnia Asset Management, left London for South Africa earlier this year citing the changes to overseas trusts that formed a key plank of the government’s non-dom overhaul. Wierzycka, who is Africa’s richest self-made woman, told City AM that the crackdowns had been “hugely damaging” for confidence in a country that was once a popular bolthole for international moneyed classes.
“The number of people leaving is one thing, but no one is focusing on people who are not coming,” she said. “The entrepreneurs, the wealthy people who previously were drawn to London have taken one look at [the changes] and said, ‘Sorry we’re not coming.’ So that means no investment, no job creation… and this inability to balance the budget.”
Britain’s wealth clamp down comes despite a growing number of countries opting to relax taxes on super-rich foreigners as they seek to lure fresh investment into their economies. In Europe, the likes of Greece, Italy and Portugal have all introduced so-called ‘flat tax regimes’ whereby super-rich immigrants pay a single charge a year for a carve out from all levies on their foreign-held assets.
Earlier this summer, it emerged that feted hedge fund manager Chris Rokos had swapped his UK residency for Greece, having paid an estimated £350m to the Exchequer last year alone. Goldman Sachs’ vice chair Richard Gnodde also left for Milan in the wake of the non-dom tax changes.
Other low-tax jurisdictions like the UAE, Monaco and Switzerland have also proven popular destinations for super-rich Brits moving overseas. According to The Sunday Times, David Reuben has now fully quit the UK having loosened his ties with the country over several years. The publicity-shy property tycoon, who along with his brother Simon are believed to be Britain’s second-richest family, is worth an estimated £28bn and has been among the UK’s richest residents – and biggest taxpayers – for several decades.
“The end of the non-dom regime has left international families facing UK inheritance tax on their worldwide assets, including wealth created overseas, often long before they came to Britain,” said Leslie Macleod-Miller, chief executive of Foreign Investors for Britain. “Add the constant talk of capital gains tax rises, wealth taxes, mansion taxes and exit taxes, and the message is clear: success here is something to be raided, not welcomed.”
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Hedge fund billionaire Chris Rokos joins UK wealth exodus
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