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Quick Answer: Almost 6,000 company directors have changed their country of residence since late 2023, according to Companies House filings analysed by the Financial Times. The departures accelerated sharply after Labour’s October 2024 Budget, which raised capital gains tax, scaled back business asset relief, and abolished the non-dom regime. Dubai is the top destination. Separately, Henley & Partners estimates the UK lost over 26,000 millionaires across 2024 and 2025 — the steepest wealth outflow of any country — taking an estimated $92 billion with them.

The numbers tell a story that no amount of political reassurance can soften. Companies House filings show that roughly 3,800 company directors changed their official country of residence between October 2024 and July 2025 alone — a 40% increase on the 2,712 who relocated during the same period the previous year. Combined, that puts the two-year total close to 6,000 directors who have formally moved abroad since late 2023.

April 2025 marked the sharpest single month, with 691 departures logged — a 79% jump on April 2024 and more than double the figure from April 2023. That month was not coincidental. It was when Labour’s most consequential tax changes formally took effect.

What Drove Them Out

The exodus traces directly to a series of fiscal reforms introduced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in the October 2024 Budget and implemented through early 2025. The headline changes were sweeping and, for many business owners, devastating in their cumulative effect.

Capital gains tax for higher-rate taxpayers rose immediately from 20% to 24%. Business Asset Disposal Relief — formerly Entrepreneurs’ Relief, the tax break that allowed business owners to pay just 10% on the first £1 million of profit when selling a company — was cut to 14% in April 2025 and is legislated to rise again to 18% in April 2026. Business Property Relief, which allowed entrepreneurs to pass businesses to their children free of inheritance tax, was capped at 50% for assets over £1 million from April 2026.

Perhaps most significantly, the government abolished the non-domicile tax regime entirely. For decades, the non-dom system had allowed UK residents who claimed a permanent home abroad to shield their overseas income and gains from British taxation. Its removal — long debated but never enacted by previous governments — pulled the rug from under thousands of internationally mobile entrepreneurs and investors who had built their financial planning around it.

The effect was not subtle. Investment migration applications from UK nationals surged 337% over five years, according to Henley & Partners. While some departing directors were foreign nationals returning home, a growing share were British-born business owners from finance, property, and technology — sectors that had driven the UK’s innovation ecosystem for a generation.

Where They Are Going

Dubai has emerged as the primary destination, and it is not hard to see why. The UAE charges zero personal income tax, zero capital gains tax, and zero inheritance tax. Its Golden Visa programme offers 10-year residency for investors and entrepreneurs, while its free zones permit 100% foreign ownership. The UAE received a record 9,800 relocating millionaires in 2025 — the highest inflow of any country globally.

Beyond Dubai, departing directors and wealthy individuals have gravitated toward Switzerland, where the forfait lump-sum taxation system allows qualifying foreign nationals to negotiate fixed annual payments regardless of actual income. Monaco remains a perennial draw for the ultra-wealthy, while tax-friendly US states like Florida and Texas are attracting those with transatlantic business interests. European destinations including Italy, Spain, and Portugal have also seen increased interest, particularly among semi-retired entrepreneurs seeking lifestyle as well as fiscal advantage.

The Millionaire Numbers

The director departures are just one layer of a much broader wealth migration. Henley & Partners estimates that the UK recorded a net outflow of roughly 9,500 millionaires in 2024 — already the largest of any country that year. In 2025, that figure more than doubled to 16,500, representing approximately $92 billion in personal wealth leaving Britain. That two-year combined loss of over 26,000 millionaires is the steepest ever recorded for any single nation.

The UK’s billionaire count fell from 165 to 156 in a single year. High-profile departures include steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal and shipping billionaire John Fredriksen, both of whom relocated to Dubai. Goldman Sachs executive Richard Gnodde and real estate developers Ian and Richard Livingstone have also been cited among those reconsidering London.

New World Wealth research shows that over 60% of centi-millionaires — those with $100 million or more — are entrepreneurs and company founders. Their departure carries consequences that extend far beyond lost tax receipts. These are the individuals who build the companies that create jobs, fund innovation, and anchor the professional services ecosystems of London and other British cities.

What It Means for the UK Economy

The Treasury expects its tax reforms to raise £33.8 billion over five years. But the Office for Budget Responsibility has warned that the yield depends heavily on how many high earners ultimately leave — and the early evidence suggests more are leaving than anticipated.

The economic consequences operate on multiple levels. Every departing entrepreneur takes not only their personal tax contribution but their business investment, their spending in the domestic economy, and their employment footprint. Companies are already responding by hiring contractors rather than permanent staff to reduce tax exposure, further eroding the PAYE base.

The London Stock Exchange — once the world’s largest by market capitalisation, now ranked eleventh — has seen 88 firms delist in a single year. Its performance over the past decade has been stark: the FTSE 100 grew by just 6.1% annually versus 15.5% for the S&P 500. This declining competitiveness feeds directly into the narrative driving entrepreneurs abroad.

Critics, including the Tax Justice Network, argue the scale of the exodus is overstated — that the 9,500 millionaires who left in 2024 represented just 0.3% of the UK’s total millionaire population. But even sceptics acknowledge the direction of travel. When the individuals who create wealth, build companies, and attract global capital conclude that the system no longer works for them, the damage is not measured only in headcount. It is measured in the opportunities that never arrive, the companies that are never founded, and the jobs that are never created.

Britain does not have a spending problem or even, primarily, a revenue problem. It has a confidence problem. And confidence, once lost, does not come back on a government’s preferred timeline.

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