UK Chancellor weighs new investor visa for Budget

Chancellor John Healey is considering a new visa route for wealthy foreigners in his Budget this month, Bloomberg reported on 16 October, citing people familiar with the matter. It would be similar to the investor visa that Boris Johnson's government closed in 2022 amid concerns that some applicants, especially from Russia, were using it to launder money. The Home Office declined to comment, and nothing has been decided.

Bloomberg reports that two outside proposals are among the options. The first comes from the think tank IPPR, which in July proposed a British Business Investment Visa. Applicants would invest £5 million over five years in a vehicle overseen by the state-owned British Business Bank, directed into innovative and high-growth sectors and paying a return "significantly lower than market rates" (as of 16 October 2026, per Bloomberg). IPPR's plan splits this into £3 million upfront and £1 million each after two and a half and five years, with no fast track to settlement or citizenship and around 100 applicants a year (as of 9 July 2026, per IPPR).

The second comes from the lobby group Foreign Investors for Britain: a minimum of £2.5 million in qualifying investments, in return for the option of paying a flat-rate tax of £200,000 a year for up to 15 years (as of 16 October 2026, per Bloomberg). The Guardian also carried the report.

The UK has had no investor visa since February 2022. An invite-only route has been debated since then but not enacted.