{"id":546453,"date":"2026-04-23T13:26:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/546453\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T13:26:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:26:21","slug":"non-dom-exodus-as-uk-loses-power-to-attract-the-richest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/546453\/","title":{"rendered":"Non-dom exodus as UK loses power to attract the richest"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UK is lagging behind the US and its European neighbours in attracting the wealthiest people, a report has found, after changes to non-dom status introduced by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves.<\/p>\n

The annual Wealth Report, from the estate agency Knight Frank, found that the global population of \u201cultra-high-net-worth individuals\u201d, those with assets of $30 million or more, has surged from 551,435 to a record 713,626 in five years thanks to the tech boom. Eighty-nine such multi-millionaires are created every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are witnessing one of the most significant shifts in global wealth distribution in modern history,\u201d Liam Bailey, the global head of research at Knight Frank, said.<\/p>\n

This growth has been overwhelmingly concentrated in the United States, with 41 per cent of the world\u2019s super-rich residents generated there in the past five years, lifting its overall global share from 33 to 35 per cent of the total. <\/p>\n

The number of US residents worth more than $30 million has risen by 66,916 since 2021 to reach 251,352 this year. It is projected to reach 387,422 by 2031.<\/p>\n

The report also showed how Britain and the high-end London property market<\/a> are lagging behind. The UK\u2019s ultra-high-net-worth population has remained sluggish, at 27,876 compared with 24,871 in 2021 (a 12.1 per cent rise) and is predicted to creep up by only 11 per cent in the next five years to 30,942. <\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s performance is well below France, which has experienced a 21.3 per cent rise in the richest people from 2021-26, along with Germany (32 per cent), Italy (23 per cent) and Spain (41.8 per cent).<\/p>\n

The report blamed Reeves\u2019s decision to abolish non-dom tax status, which came into force last April, plus other tax rises, for cooling demand for the most expensive London property and leading many rich people to look elsewhere. <\/p>\n

\"BritishRachel ReevesIsabel Infantes\/Reuters<\/p>\n

It quoted a report from the Centre for Economics and\u00a0Business Research which suggested a quarter of non-doms could leave as a result<\/a>. It said: \u201cTinkering with wealth and property taxes has continued alongside the rise of low-tax competitors like Dubai.<\/p>\n

\u201cOctober 2024 [when non-dom abolishment was announced] prompted a flurry of high-profile wealthy individuals to announce they were\u00a0relocating. Office for Budget Responsibility projections suggest that as many as 20 per cent\u00a0of affected non-doms might leave, roughly 1,200 people. The Centre for Economics and\u00a0Business Research suggests the figure could be closer to a quarter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Tony Travers, from the department of government at the London School of Economics, said the decision to overlook the importance of wealthy individuals was risky, adding: \u201cYou need the lawyers, hedge funds, private equity people and the financial and business services industry. You need more than the bright lights of a big city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bailey said overseas wealthy residents increasingly had a \u201cdip in, dip out\u201d attitude towards London, taking out extremely expensive short-term rentals for brief visits rather than staying permanently, primarily for tax reasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said governments had to try to \u201ctrap\u201d wealth by using a combination of taxes and incentives.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe US economy has been and continues to be a machine for generating wealth,\u201d he said. \u201cOther countries are growing rapidly, but obviously from a lower base. But the US, as a mature economy, has this unique ability to kind of generate the conditions for very significant wealth creation.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Britain, he added: \u201cPeter Mandelson<\/a>, I\u2019m not sure I should be mentioning him at the moment, said New Labour at the time were intensely relaxed about people becoming filthy rich. But the second part of his quote was, \u2018as long as they pay their taxes\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo actually, this is where governments have got to be careful about dissuading wealth onshore. But actually, they need to create the conditions where actually it is clear to the electorate, the actual benefits \u2014 the tangible benefits \u2014 of having wealth in their country.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Significant increases in the richest people can be found dotted around southeast Asia and the Middle East, although the numbers are far lower than the US. For example, there has been a 63.4 per cent rise in those worth more than $30 million between 2021 and 2026 in India, and an increase of 26.9 per cent predicted there in the next five years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There was a 36.6 per cent rise in Indonesia, and a further 81.7 per cent forecast for 2026-31, while Saudi Arabia (69.2 per cent up in five years and a projected 63.2 per cent for the next five) and Australia (32.5 per cent from 2021-26 and then 58.5 per cent until 2031) are among other leading wealth creation zones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK is lagging behind the US and its European neighbours in attracting the wealthiest people, a report…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-546453","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546453","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=546453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}