Rich List shows that Jersey continues to profit from UK wealth flight - Jersey Evening Post
by Julien Morel · Jersey Evening PostPosted inNews
Rich List shows that Jersey continues to profit from UK wealth flight
by Julien Morel 15 May 202615 May 2026
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JERSEY continues to benefit from an ‘exodus’ of wealth from the UK, according to the compiler of this year’s Sunday Times Rich List.
Around 2% of all the rich list wealth this year is controlled by people based in Jersey or Guernsey, with 14 of the 350 on the list residing in the Channel Islands, compared to eight based in Dubai.
Robert Watts, who researches how much Britain’s wealthy are worth, told the JEP: “We are seeing a tale of two exoduses in the UK: firstly, the global super rich who have come to the UK in recent decades have started to leave and leave in significant numbers, and that is all about the end of the ‘non-dom’ status.
“The second exodus are the homegrown Brits, who we still put on the Rich List but they are now choosing to leave as well, heading off to Switzerland, Monaco and the Channel Islands.”
Mr Watts, who lived in St Peter as a youngster, added: “Those who are going to the Channel Islands know that they can continue to run a business, they can wake up in Jersey and be in London to do a full day’s work if they want to.
“Another important factor is stability: when I talk to these people, it is not just the tax rates in the UK that make them tetchy; it is the uncertainty around the rules and the political situation. That unease extends to places like Dubai.
“It means that the Channel Islands can punch a little bit above their weight. They have got something special there, which some of those places, like Dubai, Switzerland, Monaco have not got.”
Jersey entrants this year, according to the newspaper, include Italian hedge fund manager Edoardo Mercadante, who is reported to be worth £846m, up from £663m last year; former coalminer turned logistics entrepreneur Steve Parkin, who is worth £503m; hedge fund manager Ross Turner (£500m) and Steve Turner (£338m) who co-founded a business called Spectrum Medical.
A re-entry on the Jersey list is Redrow founder Steve Morgan, who last year returned to the Island with a record-breaking £38m purchase of The Grove in St Lawrence. He is worth £935m, down £53m on 2025, according to Mr Watts’ research.
Top of the Channel Islands’ list once again is the Jersey-based head of one of Scotland’s largest and best-known distilleries.
Glenn Gordon and his family – who own William Grant & Sons, the company behind Glenfiddich, Grant’s and Drambuie – are estimated to be worth £4.745 billion this year.
While most would raise more than a wee dram for such riches, the newspaper estimates that the family wealth has fallen by a quarter from £6.398bn last year.
This is based on the group’s profits being down 30% last year. However, although the recent fortunes of William Grant may have been more on the rocks than looking neat, the distillery would have no doubt been buoyed by the recent announcement of US president Donald Trump, who removed all tariffs and restrictions on whisky imports in honour of King Charles’s state visit.
Jersey’s ‘High Value Residency’ programme, which allows the super-wealthy to bypass housing laws in exchange for an agreed tax contribution, has long been controversial and was debated recently in the States Assembly, when a proposition to cap the annual number at 15 arrivals was rejected.
So far this year, 16 individuals or families have arrived as part of the scheme – more in the first five months of 2026 than in the entire years of 2020, 2022, 2023 or 2024.
Meanwhile, two people have left the scheme this year.
There were 29 arrivals last year, with 11 individuals / families leaving.
Around 260 families currently live in Jersey after moving through the scheme.
It is understood that not all ‘2(1)e’s’ are coming from the UK, indeed some are moving from other low-tax jurisdictions.
Although unable to speak now in the election period, External Relations Minister Ian Gorst said last year: “Jersey’s beauty, low-crime rates, and welcoming community have always appealed to new arrivals from the UK, and further afield.
“In recent years, Jersey has increased its popularity with fund managers and technology founders who see the benefits of working in a financial centre with our breadth and depth of expertise.”
In March, the JEP reported that US investment giant Millennium Management was exploring plans to move employees currently based in Dubai to Jersey, in the wake of the conflict in the Middle East.
This year’s Sunday Times Rich List is published on 17 May and is available online here.
This year’s list of 350 individuals and families together holds a combined wealth of £783.5 billion — a sum larger than the annual GDP of Belgium ($776 billion), Sweden ($760 billion) and Israel ($719 billion). It represents about a quarter of the United Kingdom’s total annual GDP.
Sir Elton John, Lord Lloyd-Webber, Sir Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, JK Rowling, Charlotte Tilbury and Sir Lewis Hamilton all appear in the annual survey.
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