Tax changes announced in the Autumn Budget and the leak of related Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) documents prior to the Chancellor’s speech could accelerate an exodus of affluent individuals from the UK, industry figures have warned.

In the Budget, Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, announced a raft of policy changes, including a tax on high-value properties, a tax rate increase on dividends, property and savings income, and further freezes on personal tax allowances.

AAF Financial managing director, Finn Houlihan, said the Budget was “less of a rallying cry for growth and more of a starting gun for an exodus”.

“By freezing allowances, slashing tax breaks, and tightening residency rules, the government has engineered a dangerous paradox: they are desperate to fill an immediate multi-billion pound black hole, yet are seemingly actively dismantling the incentives required to generate that wealth,” he stated.

“Instead of stimulating the innovation and productivity needed to revive the economy, these decisions offer zero clarity and dangerously low motivation for entrepreneurs and investors to stay put. The government is hunting for immediate liquidity, but their discouraging words are simply shrinking the tax base they intend to harvest.”

Houlihan said that, over the past 12 months, enquiries from clients looking to leave the UK had hit record highs at the company.

“It isn't just the wealthy using the new non-dom changes to exit,” he continued. “We are witnessing a massive increase in enquiries from ambitious young professionals and teachers seeking higher pay and lower taxes abroad because they want to be able to save money, something the UK regime makes increasingly impossible to do.

“Ultimately, these measures fail to solve the professed problem of immediate funding because they rely on a captive audience that no longer exists. By targeting pensions and savings, the government is discouraging investment in UK companies exactly when it is needed most. This approach ignores the unintended consequences of capital flight. You cannot tax wealth that has already left the building.

“We are looking at a policy framework that doesn't just fail to fix the present but, rather, actively mortgages the future by pushing capital, talent, and stability offshore.”

DeVere Group CEO, Nigel Green, said that the leak of OBR documents detailing the government’s planned Budget announcements before Reeves’ speech was “shambolic”.

“You can’t tell the world you want to stabilise the UK economy and then allow the centrepiece fiscal document to appear online by accident,” he stated.

“Investors and high earners will be seeing it as a warning about the government’s overall direction.”

Green warned that tax threshold freezes being extended further, while inflation and wages rise, quietly increased tax every year, and people who generate significant economic activity that can easily relocate tended to look at these long-term patterns.

“International buyers and senior executives see property taxes as a test of policy predictability,” Green continued.

“A new levy on higher-value homes signals a government willing to target assets whenever revenue is needed. That is enough to shift investment strategies away from the UK.

“People make long-term decisions about where to work, where to build wealth and where to retire. When rules around pensions tighten sharply, it undermines confidence in the broader system. Wealth moves where governments show stability over decades, not sudden extractions.

“People with worldwide opportunities compare the UK’s choices with alternatives elsewhere. The documents reveal a government that places the heaviest load on those with the greatest mobility. That is how a wealth exodus from Britain begins. It will not be loud at first. It will be systematic, rational and global.”

Regarding the long-running speculation ahead of the Budget, LGT Wealth Management head of regional wealth planning and family governance, Ola Adeosun, highlighted how proactively family businesses had responded to the uncertainty.

“In many cases, the biggest challenges they face don’t come from tax policy itself, but from a lack of planning, governance structures, and the complex relational dynamics that hold a family together,” said Adeosun.

“That’s why, for me, the silver lining in the Budget noise is the way it has prompted many families to begin long-postponed conversations – discussing succession, values, roles, purpose, and how to support the next generation. It is vital that families understand what the changes truly mean for them and seek informed advice rather than react to headlines.

“The real opportunity right now is to use this noisy inflection point to reinforce the family foundations that outlast the passing political weather.”

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