16 hours ago
OPINION - We need to do more to make the rich feel at home in London (yes, really)
Leafing through the programme at the theatre on Saturday night, the eyes were drawn as they usually are, to the section at the back where they list the benefactors. As ever, it was a question of seeing how many of them were familiar. But on this occasion, there was an added twist: how will the same rollcall appear in a few years' hence, will there still be the usual suspects or will there be new ones or indeed, will it be anything like as voluminous?
Because rich folks matter. We need them, London needs them. Without their presence and support, their love and affection, swathes of our society will suffer. It is easy to mock, to take them for granted, to say they don't count, that they don't contribute anything. In which case, look around you. Yes, restaurants may be emptier, limousine services will suffer along with concierge services and private schools. Bless. Likewise, the posh estate agencies, florists and so forth. But they are real businesses providing real jobs.
Still, widen your gaze further, to those buildings that dominate the skyline, to the companies that occupy the grand offices, to the deals that make the business sections, to the stock market. Now range a bit wider, to take in the charities, arts and the community projects. Who do you think pays for them, where do you think the money comes from? Not from the government, some does but nowhere near enough, not from us because we don't have the cash. It's from the billionaires and multi-millionaires, that's who.
That's right, from the very people this government and those on the left are driving away; people that London must persuade to return and if they've not been, to come here to live, to employ, to spend, to invest, to donate.
We're killing the golden goose that made London what it is – a great world city, the greatest. It's utter folly what is occurring and all in the name of ideological dogma.
Of course, many of us are right to resent the non-doms, the foreigners who settle in the UK, usually in London, and pay a flat fee in return for paying next to nothing in tax. We wish we could be like them and have all their wealth and not have HMRC grab its hefty wedge. Of course we do, we're human. They should pay their fair share like everyone else, then we will be happy and there will more for public services, the Exchequer will be fatter.
Except it won't be. Because those people are not like us, like everyone else; they have no roots here, no loyalty and today, thanks to tech and better transport, they can choose to reside and to work wherever they wish. And they can, they will, they are. There is no shortage of takers – other countries are lining up to compete for their favour and for their money. This is the point that those who argue for the imposition of a wealth tax on top of the other charges heaped on the richer end of the spectrum fail to address. Why, just when Britain is so intent on penalising them, are others so keen to have them?
These are not only places that have a fixation about luxury and elitism but democratic nations and their cities, politicians and officials, who know what they bring and understand what is being lost. London's loss is their gain.
Figures abound for how many have gone. Picking them apart is not difficult. Unfortunately, that is the extent of the argument – pooh-poohing and sneering. It may be a few thousand, it could be several thousand. That is not where we should be focused. If we accept, we desire rich people to relocate to the UK, to London, then we must address how to incentivise them to do so.
It is not sufficient to dither as Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are doing, to send conflicting signals of slapping on levies one moment and rowing back the next. Like any relationship, this depends on the underlying strength and emotion.
Promising to review, to reform steps you have already made will not wash. The damage is done. The UK and London have to prove and convince the feeling is deep and true. We must show we mean it and stick to it.
Not easily achievable when you're a Starmer or Reeves or Sir Sadiq Khan. Going out on a limb for a cohort that goes against much of what you stand for, who your core supporters loathe, is not in your nature, you're unlikely to convince. Somehow you have to find a way.
A firm, unalloyed declaration would help – of the sort that Peter Mandelson, now our ambassador to Washington, gave for a previous Labour administration when he said it was 'intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich'.
Ally that with concrete measures, including the full restoration of non-dom status and the abolition of the changes to inheritance tax relief for business owners. They would definitely improve the mood and provide concrete evidence it is more than empty words.
Perhaps not VAT on fee-paying schools. That was an early measure for this government and a manifesto pledge, it would be too inflammatory to scrap.
Tinkering here and there will not do it. One mistake is to imagine that all rich relocators search for is a favourable tax regime. They don't. They are also seeking something a lot broader and less tangible. They wish to feel safe and secure, to walk down Knightsbridge and not be threatened with a knife for their Rolex, to believe in London's historic, relaxed reputation without having to hire private security patrols for what are the most part, public streets, because the police either don't want to know or lack the resources.
There is nothing we can do about the weather. London will always lose out to Greece and Italy, two sunny locations with friendly tax rules that right now are competing hard for the world's rich. It's never been important; we've more than compensated in other respects. That is what we must rediscover, and quickly.
Chris Blackhurst is a writer, author, columnist and former editor of The Independent
