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What is the \u2018millionaire exodus\u2019 myth?<\/p>\n
The \u201cmillionaire exodus\u201d narrative rears its head around major fiscal events. Last month, when Rachel Reeves trailed modest tax changes<\/a> on income and wealth, there were a flurry of press releases warning of capital flight.<\/p>\n \u201cTax is the central catalyst behind silent migration,\u201d warned Nigel Green from deVere Group<\/a>, a financial advice firm, in a bulletin on \u201chigh-net-worth mobility\u201d.<\/p>\n Tideway Wealth<\/a> released a survey purportedly showing migration flows out of the UK, with founder James Baxter saying that the \u201castonishing result\u2026 reflects what we are seeing when talking to clients and prospects, especially in the higher earner category.\u201d<\/p>\n It is true that some wealthy individuals leave the UK. Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and shipping magnate John Fredriksen have recently moved to Dubai, citing Labour\u2019s tax reforms<\/a>. In August, former Manchester United footballer Rio Ferdinand announced his departure, questioning \u201cwhere our tax is going\u201d. Scroll through TikTok and you may encounter a polo-shirted millionaire strolling through the UAE sun, explaining that he has escaped Labour\u2019s \u201ctax hell\u201d.<\/p>\n But there is no evidence that this is happening on a broader scale.<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n Henley & Partners<\/a>, a wealth management firm who market \u201cgolden passports<\/a>\u201d and residence visas, release figures they claim show an \u2018exodus\u2019. According to their calculations, some 9,500 high-net-worth individuals left Britain in 2024. That sounds dramatic but represents roughly 0.3% of the UK\u2019s millionaire population. Their forecasts for this year \u2013 some 16,500 \u2013 still amount to well under 1%.<\/p>\n The figures are typically framed as a rejection of Britain\u2019s tax regime:\u00a0\u201cThis reflects a deepening perception among the wealthy that greater opportunity, freedom, and stability lie elsewhere,\u201d said Dr. Juerg Steffen<\/a>, CEO at Henley & Partners, in June.<\/p>\n \u201cThe long-term implications for Europe<\/a> and the UK\u2019s economic competitiveness and investment appeal are significant.\u201d<\/p>\n But proportionally, the numbers remain tiny, far smaller than the term \u201cexodus\u201d implies \u2013 and even these numbers cannot be relied upon. Henley\u2019s partner, New World Wealth<\/a>, tracks a narrow group of extremely wealthy individuals \u2013 centi-millionaires and billionaires \u2013 by analysing changes in work location on platforms like LinkedIn. This excludes most UK millionaires, most of whom have net assets under \u00a32 million and are far less mobile.<\/p>\n In one BBC More or Less investigation,<\/a> the entire UK \u201cexodus\u201d projection was found to rest on around 50 observed profile changes, scaled up to thousands.<\/p>\n Second, Henley\u2019s characterisation of its own figures has repeatedly shifted.<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2021, Henley described 2,000 millionaires leaving the UK as \u2018insignificant\u2019 but in 2023 described 1,600 millionaires leaving the UK an \u2018exodus\u2019,\u201d a Tax Justice Network report found.<\/p>\n The same scale of movement is alternately dismissed or dramatised. But most millionaires actually back taxes. According to a recent poll, some 85%\u00a0 would support a tax of 2% on assets over \u00a310m to help fund public services.<\/p>\n Who is really leaving the UK?<\/p>\n Some people are contemplating upping sticks. But they are not, by and large, millionaires<\/a>.<\/p>\n The YouGov poll commissioned by Tideway Wealth after the autumn budget found that just over one in 10 UK adults are planning to move abroad, with 4% aiming to leave within five years. Tideway linked this to the millionaire exodus narrative, with founder James Baxter saying the \u201castonishing result\u2026 reflects what we are seeing when talking to clients and prospects, especially in the higher earner category.\u201d<\/p>\n But look more closely and a different picture emerges. The polling breaks respondents into the broad social grades ABC1 and C2DE \u2014 shorthand for middle\/upper and working-class groups. 3% of working-class respondents said they were considering leaving the UK, compared with 4% of middle and upper-class respondents.<\/p>\n These categories are both porous and blunt. According to YouGov, ABC1 covers 57% of the population, <\/a>yet barely half of those people identify as middle class at all. As YouGov itself has noted, \u201cNRS grade does not line up very well with people\u2019s own class identity.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n In short, the data tells us little about millionaire wealth migration. Nonetheless, the fact the potential departure of skilled workers is troubling.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat should truly concern us is when young people and skilled professionals say they want to emigrate \u2013 like the 30% of NHS doctors who said they were thinking about leaving this year. This is the real crisis,\u201d said Davies.<\/p>\n Caitlin Boswell, head of advocacy and policy at Tax Just<\/a>ice UK<\/a>, echoed this.<\/p>\n \u201cSky-high living costs<\/a>, a deepening housing crisis<\/a>, unaffordable childcare, failing public services and poor work-life balance are the real reasons people are considering leaving the UK,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThese issues require structural changes that transform the British economy to benefit everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Migration scares have dominated British headlines in recent times. For years, they have fixated on desperate people crossing the Channel in small boats.<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n More recently, the anxiety has expanded to include wealthy individuals supposedly fleeing the United Kingdom. But as with the small-boats narrative, the spin doesn\u2019t always reflect reality.<\/p>\n Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this?\u00a0Get in touch and tell us more<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Change a vendor\u2019s life this Christmas.<\/p>\n Buy from your local Big Issue vendor every week \u2013 or support online with a\u00a0vendor support kit<\/a>\u00a0or a\u00a0subscription<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 and help people work their way out of poverty with dignity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"So why are they so persistent \u2013 and who is behind them? Let\u2019s dive into the real detail.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3091,127107,101822,59,57,58,2222,50,474,56,54,55,5351,24573],"class_list":{"0":"post-322279","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-analysis","9":"tag-billionaire-tax","10":"tag-financial-and-digital-inclusion","11":"tag-gb","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-greatbritain","14":"tag-money","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-tax","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-unitedkingdom","20":"tag-wealth","21":"tag-wealth-inequality"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}