Living in Britain

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UK Opens Arms to the Wealthy

January 19, 2011 in Expat Locations, Immigration, Living in Britain by Paul Allen | No comments

As ever, money talks. The UK government may be trying to curb overall levels of immigration into the country, but for those with the cash the doors are opening wider.

At the tail end of 2010 the government’s Home Secretary announced new limits on various components of its points-based immigration system, making it harder for non-EU citizens to enter the country. The changes will take effect from April 2011.

However, it also emerged the Tier 1 Investor and Entrepreneur categories would be made more attractive to applicants. In addition, a new Tier 1 category, Persons of Exceptional Talent, will be introduced for internationally recognised people.  

No details of the changes to the Investor category were released at the time of the announcement. However, it appears one aspect will be to reduce the time it takes for a qualifying person to be granted residency.

Investor criteria

The Investors category is designed for those who intend to make a substantial investment in the UK[1]. To be eligible, applicants need:

a)      A minimum of £1 million of your own money in a regulated financial institution that you can dispose of in the United Kingdom, or

b)      Personal assets of more than £2 million, and a £1 million loan from a financial institution regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

Successful applicants receive a three year visa initially, which can be extended for a further two years. Partners and dependent children are also covered by the visa, and are free to work/attend school. After five years visa holders can then apply for permanent residency.

Residency fast-track

Under the upcoming changes, though, it appears there will be a new fast track to residency for the wealthiest. The qualifying periods look like being:

  • 5 years for those investing £1m-£5m
  • 3 years when investing £5m-£10m
  • 2 years when the investment is £10+m

 

When you’re rich, the world really is your oyster.

[1] See the UK Border Agency website for more details, http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/workingintheuk/tier1/investor/

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Cost of an English University Education

November 5, 2010 in Education Abroad, Expat Locations, Living in Britain by Paul Allen | 3 comments

For any parent contemplating a move abroad, picking a location that offers their children a better quality of life now, and good opportunities for the future, will be a prime consideration.

On those criteria, the UK government’s newly-announced plan to increase university tuition fees has to be a black mark.

Under the policy, universities in England can charge as much as £9,000 per year in tuition fees – a steep rise from the £3,290 at present.

With the government having slashed funding for universities in its October Spending Review, it means many students are set to bear most of the cost of their courses. And that is in addition to the living expenses they already have to pay.

Some, inevitably, will be put off from attending university at all. Those that do go will either need affluent parents able to finance their education, or face a pile of debt at graduation.

Spanish Lessons

The comparative cost of university was a hot topic with some English friends we have just seen on a recent trip back to our former home in Spain.

Their daughter is due to finish her baccalaureate next summer, and is now weighing her options. If she were to go to the local university in Spain her parents would only have to pay for her books – approximately €1,000 a year. Back in the UK, by contrast, they could not afford to give their daughter the advantages a university qualification brings.

Mind you, there is a flipside: the countries’ relative job opportunities.

With unemployment soaring to over 20%, there is a big question as to what career prospects she would have in Spain post-graduation.

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Tax Threat to UK’s Global Competitiveness

October 15, 2010 in International Cost of Living, Living in Britain, Working Abroad by Paul Allen | No comments

A new report published by the City of London Corporation[1] suggests the lack of tax predictability in the UK is now “out of control,” and is threatening the country’s position as a leading global financial centre.

The report polled members of the banking, insurance, asset management, hedge fund and private equity communities on six factors: predictability, overall tax burden, attitude of tax authorities, network of tax treaties, complexity and cost of compliance.

Every respondent gave the UK a poor rating on predictability. It is the area where the UK fared worst compared to other countries, but which the report says is the most important factor in judging competitiveness.

The authors said surprise changes such as the introduction of the bank payroll tax and bank levy, and the increase to 50% in the top rate of income tax were creating uncertainty and changing the financial services industry’s perception of the UK. In addition, the new rates and measures meant “the UK is now seen as a high tax jurisdiction not dissimilar to continental countries.”

However, despite fears that changes to the UK’s regime would lead to an exodus of financial institutions and people to more favourable tax jurisdictions, such as Switzerland, Singapore and Hong Kong, that has not materialised in practice, at least thus far. Instead, for the time being London remains a key financial hub, attracting international investment, as well as expatriate and domestic workers.

Holding on to its position in the world as an attractive place to live and do business is the UK’s challenge going forwards. Relying on its weather as a source of appeal certainly won’t do the job!

[1] Taxation of the Financial Services Sector in the UK: Predictability and Competitiveness, prepared by Charles River Associates for the City of London Corporation, October 2010, http://217.154.230.218/NR/rdonlyres/E3CEF4F7-479B-46B4-AB93-29DF5F673B53/0/TaxationofFinancialServices.pdf

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What Quality of Life Can You Expect Abroad?

October 8, 2010 in Expat Advantages, Expat Locations, France, Living Abroad Pros and Cons, Living in Britain, Living in Spain by Paul Allen | 4 comments

We’ve long suspected it, and now it appears to be true – the French, those lucky blighters, have the best quality of life in Europe.

Or, at least, so says a new study by consumer comparison service uSwitch.com[1].

Its research examined 16 quality of life factors – such as net income, food and fuel costs, life expectancy and working conditions – across 10 European countries to see how they stacked up.

France emerged with the best overall score, followed by Spain. The UK came ninth, with Ireland propping up the bottom of the table.

The reason for the UK’s poor score, said uSwitch, included its high living costs, below average government spending on health and education, shortage of holiday entitlements, high retirement age and lack of sunshine.

France, by contrast, was found to have the lowest retirement age, the longest life expectancy and the highest healthcare spend.

Meanwhile, Spain benefited from low living costs (especially for alcohol and cigarettes!), the highest number of holidays (at 43 days per year) and most sunshine hours.

The firm went on to note that three in ten people in the UK believe now is a good time to emigrate[2]. Given the low quality of life it seems they can expect to enjoy, is it any wonder?

The Full Picture

Yet before everyone starts packing their bags for France and Spain, it is important to remember that while such surveys make for attention-grabbing headlines, they don’t show the full picture.

For instance, the uSwitch report gives no consideration to the countries’ current or expected economic growth rates. Or what about the 20% unemployment rate afflicting Spain?

It gives no weighting either to the burdensome red tape that is so often cited as a feature of life in France and Italy.

The percentage of GDP spent on health is a blunt tool too by which to measure and compare the efficacy of countries’ systems. The United States, for one, spends a considerably higher percentage of its GDP on health, yet millions of its citizens remain without adequate, or indeed any, health cover.

The uSwitch survey also takes it as given that the greater the hours of sunshine the better. Yet the impressive sunshine quota seen in southern Europe – as well as places such as California and parts of Australia – bring with it high summer temperatures that frequently provoke raging forest fires, water shortages, pest infestations and crop failures.

In addition, the summer heat may force residents, especially the elderly, to spend weeks of the year trapped indoors, and can even lead to spiking death rates (as seen in Europe during the 2003 heatwave).

In short, these types of reports and surveys – a plethora of which are produced around the world each year – can give some helpful indication of the life you can expect to find when moving abroad. But to get a real picture, don’t forget to consider all the elements, the pros and the cons, and what they mean specifically to you.

[1] UK and Ireland Trailing the Rest of Europe for Quality of Life, uSwitch.com, 22 September 2010, http://www.uswitch.com/press-room/press-releases/uk-and-ireland-trailing-the-rest-of-europe-for-quality-of-life-1769.pdf.

[2] uSwitch.com Consumer Opinion Panel, May 2010, amongst a sample of 3,640 adults.

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Ryder Cup Showcases Life in Britain

October 5, 2010 in Expat Advantages, Living in Britain, Repatriating to Britain by Paul Allen | No comments

After a nail-biting finale, the European team just pipped the USA to the post at this year’s Ryder Cup. The tournament is golf’s showcase international event, and its prestige was served well by some remarkable performances on both sides.

Unfortunately, it was the atrocious conditions that dominated the early stages of the competition though, with long rain delays that forced play into overtime on Monday … when, sod’s law, the weather made a volte-face and bathed the country in glorious sunshine.

Well, what can you expect from Wales in October?

In truth, Britain in autumn can be a challenging place to live. Hurricanes, like the famous one of October 1987, might be blue moon events. Wind and rain, however, are guaranteed. Add in the fading daylight as the days shorten and it starts to sound a bit bleak. No wonder so many millions of Brits dream of escaping to a life in the sun.

Mind you, in New York, where I spent a year at the turn of the millennium, the descent from the broiling heat of summer to freezing winter is even more precipitous.

By contrast, in the corner of north-eastern Spain where I lived until recently, the thermometer frequently nudged 30°C through to the end of October. Calm, sunny days meant there were a lot of leaves on the trees right up to Christmas, and oftentimes we could still venture out in T-shirts.

But now we’re back, experiencing our first autumn in the UK in eight years. I confess, weather-wise it is nowhere near as appealing as where we have come from.

The upside is the warmth we enjoy from being back among family and old friends.

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Beautiful Britain

September 20, 2010 in Living in Britain, Repatriating to Britain by Paul Allen | 2 comments

If anyone doubts the beauty Britain has to offer take a trip to Salisbury.

Before moving to Spain I was wont to focus on those aspects of life in Britain that were inciting me to leave: the weather, grey and litter-strewn streets, high living costs, crime levels, images of the country’s rundown inner cities, overburdened health and education systems.

Spanish life promised a more gilded existence. Towns of quaint narrow streets and sunshine burnished buildings, café-lined plazas and open-air markets, the turquoise Mediterranean, vast tracts of undeveloped farmland and forest, lower prices and a more relaxed pace of life.

But having now repatriated to the UK after seven years of living abroad I am seeing the beauty of my homeland with fresh eyes. I have a new appreciation of the rolling green landscapes, its woods of oak and elm and beech, those chocolate-box villages, the BBC.

And historic cities such as Salisbury.

I had my first visit there a few weeks ago. Centrepiece is the magnificent medieval Cathedral, completed in 1258 and considered the finest example of its type in the country. Less jaw-droppingly impressive, but equally charming, are the surrounding Cathedral Close and the rest of the medieval city centre.

Sitting amidst the tourist throngs on the lawns beside the Cathedral I saw the city as they must. And it made me realise just how beautiful England – and the rest of the UK – really can be. Not a bad place to live after all.

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Longleat: Beauty and the Beasts

September 8, 2010 in Living in Britain by Paul Allen | No comments

Adultery, family feuds, multimillion pound inheritances – par for the course for family life among the British aristocracy perhaps. But the Thynne family, holders of the Marquessate of Bath, are more colourful than most.

The current Lord Bath is known for his flamboyant clothing, the murals he has painted on his private apartments, and the scores of girlfriends (he used to call them “wifelets”) he has had – and made portraits of – over the years.

He is also the owner of Longleat House, the beautiful stately home in Wiltshire. Completed in 1580, it is considered one of the finest examples of Elizabethan architecture in Britain. It was also the first stately home to open to the public.

Longleat is best known though for its safari park, with its collection of lions and tigers, monkeys, rhinos and deer. The brainchild of the 6th marquess, the incumbent’s father, the safari park was opened in 1966, becoming the first such drive-through animal experience outside Africa.

Having heard so many good things about Longleat, and wanting to experience more of what England has to offer since moving back from abroad, my family and I took the opportunity to visit a couple of weeks ago.

I would have liked to trawl around the house itself, to sample the wealth of history and objets d’art on show. But having been subjected as a child to a succession of tours of grand old houses by my own parents I decided it best not to inflict the same pain on them.

Instead we enjoyed a selection of the many other activities Longleat has to offer: a ride on the miniature railway, fun time in the Adventure Castle, an exploration of the Postman Pat Village. Plus, of course, a drive around the safari park.

There was so much more we didn’t have time to see either. Still, we can save that for another visit. And I know our kids would be eager to go back.

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British Summer

August 13, 2010 in Expat Advantages, Living in Britain by Paul Allen | No comments

Spain 30 – England 20.

No, it’s not some freakish football score. It’s the current temperature differential between our home in the UK and our former one in the north-east of Spain.

The forecast for the coming week in England doesn’t look much more promising either. Temperatures barely struggling out of the teens centigrade, and the threat of heavy rain showers. Yippee.

Remind me – why did we move back to the UK?

Sort of summer

Still, that’s a British summer for you.  The odd few days of glorious sunshine, when there seems like no more beautiful place to be on Earth, followed by leaden skies and rain squalls.

It’s a season of uncertainty – periods of joy mixed with gloom. One day you’re in shorts and sandals and the next it’s jumpers and coats.

As for making plans to enjoy the Great Outdoors … in the words of Hugh Grant in Mickey Blue Eyes, Forgeddaboutit.

In other words, hardly ideal conditions when you have kids who want to be spending their days building sandcastles on the beach, or splashing around in a pool.

(For that matter, have you swum in the sea around Britain recently? Are you crazy?)

Sunshine costs

Nevertheless, seeing the BBC News reminded me that the scorching summers seen across southern Europe and elsewhere do have their downsides.

For instance, parts of the Spanish coast are being plagued at present by an invasion of jellyfish, to the painful detriment of the people that have come in contact with them.

Meanwhile, swathes of northern Portugal are being cremated by a series of forest fires, an annual occurrence in many parts of the region.

There is, after all, a price to be paid for the sun.

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Migration and the UK Coalition

May 14, 2010 in Living in Britain by Paul Allen | No comments

 

It’s not quite the West Wing, but the UK election and subsequent coalition negotiations have turned into a fascinating drama (mind you, I’m a politics graduate, so perhaps I’m biased, and a little sad).

There has even been a bit of humour. At their first joint press conference, Prime Minister David Cameron and his Liberal Democrat deputy Nick Clegg stood side-by-side in the garden at 10 Downing Street to set out their coalition stall. It was followed by a question from a journalist: “Prime minister, do you now regret when once asked what your favourite joke was, you replied ‘Nick Clegg’?” he asked.

Cameron looked suitably embarrassed, but Clegg took it in good heart. Indeed, it even revealed the relaxed camaraderie that seems to be burgeoning between the two leaders. Is this politics growing up at last? A recognition that people from different parties can work together in that stock phrase of the last few days, the National Interest?

There is certainly a lot to do, as the new government’s agenda shows. And from an expat perspective, it reveals some important choices and changes.

A notable one is immigration. It was a big area of difference during the election campaign. But the Conservatives’ proposals have now won out. As a result, the government will introduce an annual cap on the number of economic migrants from outside the European Union that are allowed into the country.

As for what happens to tax levels and spending on core services such as education we will have to wait for the upcoming Budget, which will offer the first detailed breakdown of the government’s programme.

The question then will be can this historic coalition succeed in making the UK a better place to live, both for people thinking of moving to the country and those already there? I can only hope so.

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