Too expensive even for the rich.
Do the wealthy hate Britain? You would be forgiven for thinking so, from the way wealthy people and companies are fleeing the country. As many as 11,000 millionaires have left since the beginning of 2024, often taking their businesses with them. The effects are finally being felt: in April 2025, The Times reported that the receipts from Capital Gains Tax (CGT) fell from £14.5 billion ($19.3 billion) to £13 billion ($17 billion)—a 10% drop.
But when one considers the reasons for this exodus and decline, the question that should be posed seems to be the exact opposite: Does Britain hate wealth?
In October 2024, the previous Conservative government—ostensibly champions of free markets and entrepreneurialism—revoked the tax exemptions for UK residents registered as living abroad and who earned income or made capital gains overseas. These individuals were broadly referred to as “non-doms” (non-domiciles). The previous system, changed by former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, allowed someone to live in the UK for fifteen years before losing his or her exemption, but that is ending. Kept and enforced by the Labour government elected in July 2024, this has been cited as the direct cause of high-net-worth individuals leaving the country.
Alongside this revocation, the new government maintained measures that had halved the non-doms since 2008, and even went further by increasing CGT. As of April this year, the basic rate rose from 10% to 18%, and the higher rate from 20% to 25%. Not only were foreign citizens now required to pay and be subject to an additional layer of taxes, but those taxes increased simultaneously. No wonder so many chose to leave.
Each of these changes must be viewed in a wider context; for one, politics across the Western world, both left and right, have become hostile to the group referred to by journalist David Goodhart as the “Anywheres.” Those who do not necessarily reside in their nation of birth, and could just as easily pick up and leave at any time. Typically wealthy and capable of transporting themselves and their lifestyles across the world, they were subject to the ire of figures such as President Donald Trump and Prime Ministers Boris Johnson, Theresa May, and Rishi Sunak, whilst the European Union and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) pushed for a global minimum corporation tax of 15%.
So while the political right embraced the protectionist narrative, the left did what it always does: raised taxes as the quick, easy (but certainly not correct) route to raising revenue. Alongside the CGT increase, Labour has removed private schools’ exemption from Value-Added Tax (VAT), eliminated an Inheritance Tax (IHT) break on farms worth over £1 million ($1.3 million), raised the secondary class of National Insurance Contributions (NIC, what originated as a social security tax over 100 years ago) from 13.8% to 15%, and reduced the threshold from £9,100 ($12,100) to £5,000 ($6,680). This has caused middle-class parents to pull their children out of private school, farmers to sell their generations-old family farms, and businesses to close their doors.
These are not, one can see, isolated measures; both major parties, Labour and Conservative, have progressively undermined the conditions for economic growth and wealth creation. Napoleon famously called Britain a “nation of shopkeepers,” and we embraced the label. Of the 5.5 million businesses in Britain, an estimated 5.4 million are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)—close to 99%. But this was actually a decrease from the previous year, representing 56,000 fewer private sector employees.
Britain is becoming increasingly hostile to wealth and wealth creation. As Fred de Fossard has written, this is not just over-taxation; we are also regulating ourselves into poverty. The Equality Act, passed in 2010 by Labour and kept by the subsequent Conservative coalition, led one of the country’s largest councils into “effective bankruptcy” after a £1.1 billion equal pay settlement for council employees (and it is local residents who pick up the tab for this through their council taxes). Meanwhile, the new Employment Rights Bill passing through Parliament “will add around £4 billion to businesses in regulatory burdens.”
Starting a business in Britain at the moment is beyond daunting. Entrepreneurs face taxes that punish them before they’ve even started, the highest cost of energy in the developed world, and layers of equality and employment legislation. All of these policies may sound nice to some, but are devastating for firms of all sizes, leaving very little space for what keeps a business going—profit.
The behaviors of the wealthy are usually indicative of broader trends. If living in Britain is hard for them, imagine how difficult it is for everyone else. Taxation is only part of the problem; the rest comes from burdensome regulation that requires either extra time, staff, or expertise, all of which drain resources from running and growing a business.
We are currently staring down the barrel of a recession. Is now really the time to be chasing away the wealthy and making it harder for the rest of us to start a business?
