Having a new UK Investor visa is critical to UK PLC, as the country currently has no passive visa route for HNWs to come to the UK in order to live here and spend their money, without having to do something like set up, work for or expand a business here, which isn’t always easy or feasible. To have such limited routes and such inflexible restrictions in the UK visa framework, when so many international jurisdictions are all falling over themselves to attract HNWs to come and set up home, businesses and spend money, is completely non-sensical and self-defeating, especially if the UK wants to grow the economy, as well as develop and expand the UK tech industry and become a world centre for AI innovation.

With on-going government concerns that a new investor visa could be open to abuse, it is absolutely my view that it is completely possible to introduce a new investor visa in the UK that has strong compliance safeguards, such as checking source of funds and which actually benefits the UK economy by investing into industries that will greatly benefit the Uk economy and the Uk workforce, but as I have warned time and time again, unless the UK make a couple of key tax changes, such as extending the FIG regime to 10 years (it is currently far too short for HNWs to get their feet under the table before having to think about leaving) and allowing offshore income and assets to be permanently protected from UK IHT, nothing will change, irrespective of whether we bring in a new investor visa.

The tax position and the investor visa go hand in hand!

If the UK government want the best and the brightest from the world’s cutting edge industries, as well as the world’s wealthiest families to spend their money here, open companies, employ people, establish and revolutionise new and growing industries such as tech, AI, life sciences and pharma and all of this in the face of massively fierce international competition from competing low tax jurisdictions, we have to make the UK one of the most attractive on arrival and long term tax regimes in the world and to do so there is a trade off by making those two simple tax changes, as well as a promise of expedited permanent residence within 3 years for their investment in UK PLC.

I have spoken to many HNW clients who all pinpoint the UK as their country of choice compared to other jurisdictions such as Dubai, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, Monaco and Malta but only if the UK reverses the damage done by the removal of protection from IHT for overseas wealth, gives people a 10 year breathing space to get established and enshrines all of this, so that there is certainty that the government will not seek to remove these favourable terms again.