With polling stations opening in less than 24 hours, Wealth Club, the investment platform for wealthy and sophisticated investors, has surveyed 744 clients about their views on wealth creation, current taxes and the attractiveness of the UK.
The survey is the inaugural ‘British Wealth Report’ that will be carried out bi-annually to monitor ongoing sentiment of British ‘millionaire’ investors.
Nicholas Hyett, Investment Manager at Wealth Club said, “The UK has an image problem. Wealthy investors think the country is an unappealing place to start a business, with a culture that’s unsupportive of wealth creators and high levels of taxation.
These people are important to the UK. The 100 highest earners pay an average of £46 million in tax each, while the top 100,000 earners pick up a quarter of the total income tax and capital gains tax bill despite accounting for just 0.3% of UK taxpayers. This is according to a Freedom of Information Request made by Wealth Club to HMRC in November 2023.
Changing this group’s perception of the UK should be a key goal for any incoming government. Millionaires are already leaving the UK in droves – costing the exchequer tax revenues and draining the economy of the entrepreneurs and investors who start and support young businesses.
The Labour Party, the likely winners of this election, have set out their stall as supporters of growth and wealth creation. They have some promising building blocks – with wealthy investors generally expecting the UK to achieve modest economic growth over the next five years and some surprising positivity around smaller UK companies. That’s fortunate, because politicians have a lot of work to do in burnishing the UK’s credentials as a good place to do business.
It’ll be interesting to see what progress they’ve made by the end of the year in the second edition of this report.”