Reeves wants to eat the rich, but London needs a better boost

As the super-rich take their money out of the capital, there are easy wins the Chancellor could take in her Budget.

- By Jonathan Prynn

The confident Australian mooring his sleek and polished Succession-style motor launch on the shores of Lake Como in northern Italy could not have been clearer.

“I'm one of those non-doms, mate. I love London, I didn’t want to leave, but I’m 73. I've got a big farm in Australia and I can't stand the thought of my kids having to sell and hand 40 per cent over to your government to pay the inheritance tax when I'm gone. So now I live in Italy, I've got George Clooney as a neighbour, life is not too bad.”

It was a small but telling personal illustration of the flight of wealth and talent from London that has been acting as a deadweight on the capital ever since the abolition of non-dom status was first mooted by Jeremy Hunt in the last Tory Budget of March 2024 — and confirmed by Rachel Reeves last October.

Others who have packed their bags reportedly include Goldman Sachs supremo Richard Gnodde and king of the London fintech bros, Revolut co-founder Nik Storonsky.

London is still the vital engine room of the British economy, generating nearly a quarter of the nation’s GDP and a tax surplus of £43.6 billion, making it one of only two regions in the country contributing more to the Exchequer than it is taking out.

Yet everywhere you look there are signs that the capital is struggling to attract the vital investment it needs to compete against New York, Paris and Dubai, as wealth seeps away.

Even in Mayfair, the very bullseye on London's wealth dartboard, all is not well. Retail vacancy rates in the West End district have risen from 8.4 per cent to 11.3 per cent over the past year as the luxury shoppers that stores paying up to £1,000 per sq ft in rent depend on melt away, according to figures from property data company Green Street.