Britain’s ultra-rich are increasingly voting with their feet as a wave of tax changes has left many reconsidering their U.K. residency.
It’s estimated that billionaire U.K. residents who have loosened their ties to the country in the past two years—or up and left completely—took around $160 billion with them collectively, according to a recent analysis from Bloomberg. It’s an eye-watering fortune that even surpasses the combined wealth of billionaires who have chosen to stick with their U.K. postcodes.
It’s no secret that there’s been a wave of millionaires and billionaires quitting Britain. Wealthy U.K. residents had already been fleeing the country for years before the Labour party took office in July 2024, but the biggest shift happened upon the end of the non-dom regime—a policy first announced by the Conservative party in March of that year, months before handing over the reins.
The government also raised capital gains tax rates in October 2024, with the higher rate jumping from 20% to 24%.
It’s driving the perception that the U.K. has become less enterprise-friendly—so some business tycoons are taking their fortunes elsewhere. Now, British billionaires are flocking to low-tax destinations including Switzerland, Monaco, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Switzerland, Monaco, and the UAE have become U.K. billionaire hotspots
For Britain’s wealthiest, moving abroad can offer more than a change of scenery—it can mean a dramatically lower tax bill.
Lakshmi Mittal, an Indian-born steel billionaire with a roughly $40.8 billion net worth, up and left the U.K. after three decades for Switzerland, where he is now a resident. Switzerland has become a hotspot for British billionaires thanks to its comparatively favorable tax environment and longstanding appeal to wealthy international residents, with hedge fund billionaire Alan Howard (worth $5 billion), Ipsen heiress Anne Beaufour (worth $4 billion), and private-equity billionaire Jeremy Coller (worth $3.8 billion) taking the leap to the Alpine country. Howard became a Swiss resident in 2025, while Beaufour also changed her residency to Switzerland that year.
Others like shipping mogul John Fredriksen with a $19.2 billion fortune, as well as Egyptian billionaire Nassef Sawiris (worth $9.6 billion) who lived in the U.K. for a decade, have uprooted in recent years and hold ties or residency in the UAE. The Gulf state has no federal personal income tax, and has become an increasingly popular luxe destination for wealthy expatriates.
And another picturesque locale has been a bright spot for the uber-rich: Monaco.
The tiny wealthy country on the French Riviera is not only known for luxury, yachts, and the Formula 1 Grand Prix—it’s also a long-standing tax haven for billionaires. Monaco has one of the lowest and most favorable tax systems in the world, charging no personal income tax for non-French residents. So it only follows that it’s become a billionaires’ playground.
Ian and Richard Livingstone, successful U.K. property developers with a $11.2 billion fortune, left their home country for Monaco in the spring of last year. Checkout.com founder Guillaume Pousaz, worth $6.8 billion, left the U.K. for Monaco in 2025 to settle down in the tax-friendly enclave. And John Reece, the British property billionaire with $4.1 billion in wealth, also set his sails for the Mediterranean principality back in 2019, before more recent changes in policy.
While some of the ultra-rich are fleeing the U.K., others are asking to be taxed more
Britain’s billionaires and millionaires are split over the country’s changing tax landscape. One camp of the ultra-rich cohort is actively exiting the country and slamming the tax policies as bad for business, while a whole other group is publicly demanding that they be taxed more.
Earlier this year, 88-year-old property magnate David Reuben and his brother Simon made headlines after leaving London for the sunny shores of Monaco. The businessmen, each worth an estimated $13.1 billion, were reported to have been non-dom, allowing them to pay U.K. taxes only on income earned or brought into the country. However, the status was scrapped in 2025, and under the new rules, long-term U.K. residents can also have their global assets subject to the country’s 40% inheritance tax. And telecoms entrepreneur Bassim Haidar, whose astronomical net worth is “close” to $1 billion, “urgently” left the U.K. after the non-dom policy was set to be abolished.
“There’s no two questions about this; we have looked at it from every angle and it just doesn’t make sense to stay here,” Haidar told The Guardian in 2024. “This [the ending of the non-dom regime] is going to cost me millions and millions of dollars and pounds every year in taxes on money that I’ve actually made abroad and businesses that I’ve built abroad.”
However, not every wealthy Briton sees higher taxes as a reason to pack up and leave. Some argue that the country’s richest residents have a duty to alleviate economic inequality.
In July of this year, 120 wealthy Britons signed an open letter to England’s prime minister Andy Burnham, asking for their taxes to be raised.
The “Proud to Pay” campaign, organized by Patriotic Millionaires UK, garnered support from some of the country’s biggest stars, including the likes of former footballer Gary Lineker and legendary music producer Brian Eno. The group proposed a 2% tax on wealth over £10 million ($13.3 million)—which is supported by 80% of U.K. millionaires—that would generate around £24 billion ($32 billion) every year.
By forking over more of their fortunes, the group argues that higher taxation would “disperse economic power” to those who need it most.
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