Now British millionaires lose faith in Osborne

George Osborne: Cutting the top rate of tax has not won him the support of millionaires (PA)

A majority of Britain's millionaires have, for the first time, lost confidence in George Osborne's economic policies.

An annual survey of individuals who have net disposable assets – not including their main home – of more than £1m found that confidence in the Government's management of the economy has fallen sharply over the past year.

This time last year, 55 per cent of people were happy with the Government performance, but this has now fallen to just 43 per cent. Just over a quarter now believes that the economy will improve over the next 12 months – down from a third last year.

Seven in 10 said they did not believe the Government was doing enough to encourage entrepreneurialism while three in 10 saw their finances getting worse in the next year.

The results come from a survey of nearly 1,000 millionaires carried out twice yearly by CoreDate Research for the UK investment company Skandia.

It shows that despite widespread public perception that the Chancellor was helping high-net-worth individuals in the Budget by lowering the top rate of tax, he still has a way to go to convince them that he has the correct policies. But the survey also found that millionaires had even less confidence in Labour and Ed Miliband to promote economic growth. Asked who was the best leader to lead the country out of recession, 46.5 per cent favoured David Cameron compared with 17.9 per cent who backed Mr Miliband. Nearly a third said they had no confidence in any of the party leaders.

Interestingly, richer millionaires in general had more confidence in the Government's economic policies than those with just a couple of million to their name. More than half of those questioned with more than £3 million in net assets approved of the Government's management of the economy.

Discontent about economic policies appears to be making some millionaires consider leaving Britain, with just under half (45 per cent) saying they would consider moving abroad.

Factors encouraging people to consider leaving the UK included the standard of living (20 per cent), the cost of living (11 per cent) and tax rates (10 per cent), as well as the British weather (21 per cent).