The teams who surround high net worth families are joining them when leaving the UK which will have an impact on the economy, according to Jeremy Savory, founder of Savory & Partners.
According to Savory, headlines in the press have focused on HNWIs and non-doms leaving the UK when the people who work with these wealthy individuals, who most likely are UK taxpayers, are also leaving to go with them.
He said family offices, corporate service companies and recruitment agencies are all looking to relocate as a result of HNWs departing.
“People are talking about non-doms but they’re not talking about the people that are employed by those non-doms, like household staff.
“These people are also going away and these are actual UK taxpayers. People who work in family offices are higher rate earners, which the UK is also losing,” he explained.
Savory mentioned feeling “quite sad” about how the UK was being perceived by the rest of the world and the narrative that was being produced in relation to the UK not being an attractive place for wealthy people anymore.
IHT changes ‘damaging’
The changes to IHT have not been received well by people in other countries, according to Savory, who believed the reforms were more damaging for the UK’s image than the changes to the non-dom regime.
“Now [the government] is looking at a wealth tax. Personally I think people now feel indifferent about it and are saying: ‘OK, chuck in the wealth tax as well’, because the damage is largely already done from a public relations perspective,” Savory said.
He added the changes to IHT were one of the main drivers for wealthy individuals looking to relocate.
He also highlighted how even those who did not live in the UK, but had assets in the country were selling them because of the changes.
“When I was in Kenya, I met with two ultra high net worth families, and they have sold all their properties in the UK. They said they were not getting any income from them anyway, and now there was no point having them,” Savory recalled.
He was also concerned about how the UK would be able to continue attracting wealthy people given the changes being implemented by the current government.
London as ‘centre of gravity’ to do business
Savory described London as once being the “centre of gravity”, meaning it was the hotspot to do business in the world but that was now changing.
“I really fear that we are just losing to other [countries] that wouldn’t have had a horse in the race [previously], such as Greece, definitely Italy and definitely the UAE,” he said.
Savory believed the UK should charge a lump sum on wealthy foreigners, adding it was easier to charge people when they were already in the country than trying to attract them in the first place.
He pointed out the UK may benefit from Americans leaving the US and wanting to relocate, as a result of Donald Trump’s tariffs.
“I went to a private wealth conference a year ago, and there were over 200 wealth practitioners including tax lawyers, corporate services providers, financial advisers, private wealth people, and they were already setting themselves up to meet their clients on the other side once they had relocated,” according to Savory.
He emphasised how these were all people sitting in high rate tax brackets who were going to leave the UK.
“If HNWs are going, then all these people have to go with them. They’re totally dependent on them,” Savory added.
alina.khan@ft.com
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