Until September 2024, the couple raised their three children, aged five, 14 and 25, in Northamptonshire. But after the 20 per cent VAT increase was announced on private schools in July, they decided to take action.
Griffin and her husband own several businesses working as accountants, but the private school fee hike was set to increase their bills by £5,000 a year. “It was just constant money in the UK and having to pay some kind of tax,” she says. “We’re not rich. We’re just normal people, but we were really drained by all the bills. If you’re mega-rich, you don’t really notice these things, but for the people in the middle like us, it was a real problem.”
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While her primary school was supportive, her secondary school experience was “horrendous”, she says. “So when we had our next child, many years later, we said straight away that we would save to send her to private school so she would have more support.”
The couple’s conversations kept returning to the financial freedom they would have if they moved to the UAE, which doesn’t charge income tax. The final straw came when Labour announced it would raise the VAT on private school fees if it won the election. “This was in April last year. We said, let’s apply for some Dubai school places and see what happens. If she gets a place, then we will go. She got a place on 30 June.” The family quickly applied for a visa and left on 16 August.
The Griffin family aren’t alone. There has been a surge in UK residents moving to the UAE in recent years, with 30,000 new arrivals in 2021, followed by 35,000 in 2022 and 40,000 in 2023. Now, a new cohort is moving in to the cities’ high-rises: private school parents.
Dubai’s private schools are reporting rising applications. Kieran McLaughlin, headteacher of the Durham School Dubai, says they have seen a 15 per cent increase in applicants from the UK in the past year. “The year before, in 2023, we averaged about a 5 per cent increase, so that is quite a significant difference,” he says. “Families are not happy with the quality of life in the UK. They move because they know the opportunities their children will get here are wider. It’s a very safe place to live. In the long run, it’s much cheaper to raise a family.”
Kieran McLaughlin is the headteacher of the Durham School, a private school in DubaiIn the six months they have been in the UAE, Griffin has struggled to make friends. “It does take time to settle here. It’s a very transient country, so it is quite hard to meet people. I’m not there yet, but every day gets a little bit better. My husband loves it, and my daughter loves it. What 15-year-old wouldn’t love living in a hot country? We go to the community pool nearby where we live every day.”
Griffin’s daily life is similar to her workday in the UK, as she works from home. “Some people come here to live the high life, and they’re out brunching every weekend. They’re going to all these amazing events that you can go to in Dubai, but we’re pretty normal,” she says. “We just live our quiet life.” At the moment, there isn’t a huge windfall in their finances, as they have had to pay for their housing upfront, but in the next year, Griffins expects to start seeing the impact of living without income tax.
The best part about their new life is the safety. “The kids out here go to the park from a young age alone. It’s a very friendly place. They’re safe,” she says. “I let my daughter go in taxis. I would never do that in England. But now she can go in a taxi to the mall with her friends. I know nothing’s going to happen to her. I didn’t have that security in England.”
Still, Griffin misses her friends and family. “I miss my family. I miss England. I miss the greenery and not having sand everywhere,” she says. Once her children have completed their private education, the couple plan to return home. “Still,” she says, “it’s definitely a good experience.”
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