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TRAUMATISED by a string of muggings and being let go from her job, Jill Rippingdale was at her wits’ end when she decided to ditch the “crazy” streets of lawless London for Dubai.
Now, boasting an £85,000-a-year salary, with a swanky apartment overlooking Donald Trump’s luxury golf course, the 29-year-old has truly had the last laugh – even if she’s had to navigate the city’s “awful” pervy dating scene along the way.
In recent years, a flock of famous faces have upped sticks to the sun-soaked, oil-rich Emirate, with Rio Ferdinand the latest to take a swipe at Keir Starmer’s Britain after making the switch.
In a parting blast, the six-time Premier League winner – who relocated in August with wife Kate, 33 and kids Cree, 4, and Shae, 2 – yesterday claimed he decided to move as the UK was “falling apart”.
The 46-year-old said: “If things like the health service, for example, was absolutely flying and working perfectly well then I think people wouldn’t mind paying tax.
“But when there’s things that are falling apart and going wrong in the country, then I sit there and go, we pay towards tax and is it really going towards the things that are actually benefiting the people that live here?
“And that’s the big question that needs answering. I think a lot of us know the answer to that.”
Just like Man United legend Rio, Jill says the cost of living in the UK is just going “up and up” while criminals terrorise the streets and hard-up Brits struggle to hold down a steady job.
While living in London, she lost her phone to thieves on three occasions and was so fed up she knew it was time to leave.
After scraping together meagre savings on a minimum wage job in a care home, she went on a much-needed holiday to Dubai – and never looked back.
A friend out there offered her a job in a hotel when they met for coffee and she decided to take the leap.
Now, she has a message to others sick of life in high-tax, crime-plagued Britain: “Move to Dubai.”
Tax hell
Jill echoes Rio’s criticism ahead of what many are convinced is going to be a massive tax raid by Rachel Reeves in the Budget later this month.
She said: “There are so many opportunities here in Dubai. The weather is amazing, there’s no income tax and no crime.
“If you are willing to knuckle down and work hard then you can achieve anything here. Your whole salary is your salary and you get health insurance as an added free of charge benefit.
“You don’t pay any national insurance or income tax so all of your salary goes into your pocket. But back in the UK the taxes just seem to be going up and up.
“Every time I see a report about potential tax increases I think it’s absolutely insane. It makes me so glad that I moved here when I did and it pains me for my mum and dad to see when taxes are going up and the retirement age is rising.”
Jill moved to London from her Scottish hometown when she was 16, keen to experience the excitement of life in the capital.
She got a job in a hotel, worked her way up to reception manager and developed a wide group of friends and a busy social life – but the downsides of life in London soon got her down.
She said: “The crime was crazy. I had my phone taken out of my hand three times in the space of five years.
“The first time I was walking down the street in Southwark with my earphones in and a motorbike came on to the path right beside me. The rider grabbed my phone and sped off.
I didn’t know anyone apart from her, I didn’t have anywhere to stay and didn’t have many savings left – but I grabbed the opportunity with both hands
Jill
“It was a horrible experience. I was in tears. Your life is on your phone – I couldn’t get in touch with my mum or contact my friends or do any banking.
“The second time I was texting at a bus stop in Greenwich and a guy on a bike drove past me and grabbed it.
“And the third I was sitting on the Tube when it pulled into Bond Street station. A bloke on the platform ran on, snatched it out of my hand, leapt off the train and vanished.
“And I never felt safe after dark walking home or getting the night bus. The levels of crime were terrible, I was always looking over my shoulder.”
Leap of faith
She began planning to move to Australia and successfully applied for a visa – but a week later Covid hit.
She hoped she would be furloughed from her hotel job but instead they let her go, so she took a lower-paid role in a care home.
Dubai was one of the first countries to lift lockdown restrictions so Jill and a pal headed there for some much-needed sun – not realising it would change her life forever.
She said: “I knew someone who was working as an HR manager in Dubai so I messaged her to meet for a coffee.
“At the end of our chat she offered me a job. I didn’t know anyone apart from her, I didn’t have anywhere to stay and didn’t have many savings left – but I grabbed the opportunity with both hands.
“I started work at a Hyatt hotel as a reception supervisor for the equivalent of £500 a month.
“It was so hard to start with, 12-hour days, no friends and terrible homesickness. Every single month I would contemplate packing it all in and heading home. There were a lot of tears and a lot of emotional phone calls to my mum.
“But I was determined to make a go of it – I didn’t want to let myself down and I didn’t want to let my mum down.
“My parents split up when I was eight. My dad has always been great but my mum really took control of everything.
“She brought us up and made so many sacrifices for me and my brother. She worked so hard and spent every penny making sure we didn’t do without, even managing to take us on two holidays a year.
“I didn’t want to fail – I wanted to prove I could do it so I kept working, climbed the salary ladder and made some friends. Slowly but surely life got better.”
Dating in Dubai is awful…there are not many men looking for a relationship, they are all after something else
Jill
Jill landed a job as a contracts manager for We Will Fix It, one of the top maintenance firms in Dubai, which was started by two British expats.
She now earns £60,000 a year – the equivalent of £85,000 in the UK thanks to Dubai’s lack of income tax.
It allowed her to buy her 24th floor apartment in the sought-after DAMAC Hills suburb of Dubai, which is built around the Trump International Golf Club.
And after a series of unhappy experiences on the dating apps, she also found true love – with finance manager Garvit Arora, 29.
Dating disasters
Jill said: “Dating in Dubai is awful. I know it’s bad enough back home but here there are not many men looking for a relationship – they are all after something else.
“I was on all the apps, Tinder, Bumble, you name it, but without any success.
“I knew Garvit a bit from when I worked at the hotel, where he was in the accounts department, but we hardly spoke.
“After I left that job an old colleague had a birthday party and invited him and we hit it off. He was so kind, he was always the one to make the conversation, the first one to message to say good morning and the first to say good night.
“He was out of the ordinary – and so was his proposal.
“We were on holiday in Bali and he took me to the swimming pool where, with the help of a company he found on Instagram, he had created this amazing floral arrangement on the water which read ‘Will you marry me, Jill?’
“It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in my life. I said yes – and then we leapt into the water.”
Garvit’s family is originally from Punjab, India, but by an amazing coincidence his brother lives in Scotland, just a few miles from Jill’s family home in Dumfries, in the Borders.
They are getting married in April and she then has her eye on yet more business opportunities.
Cuddling Cino, her Maltipoo pup, she said: “Our plan is to move out of this apartment next year into a villa, but we will keep this and rent it out. We then hope to build up a property portfolio.
“I’m always striving to do better, always striving to make more money for myself, for us, for Cino.
I wish my 16-year-old self could see me now, when I was working as a waitress struggling to make ends meet
Jill
“I really love the job I am in. I handle a lot of villas in Dubai which have annual maintenance contracts for things like AC, plumbing and electrical issues.
“I get to go and see new villas which is fun and some of them blow your mind. It makes you think: ‘Oh my god. I wish I had this.’ It definitely drives your motivation, what people have made of themselves in Dubai.
“I wish my 16-year-old self could see me now, when I was working as a waitress struggling to make ends meet. I was trying to be independent away from my parents and now I’ve got all of this – it’s crazy.”
No regrets
She adds: “For me, the top three things about Dubai are, first – convenience, thanks to the shopping and delivery apps we have. If we run out of soap, I can order it and it’ll be here within 15 minutes.
“One day I went to a pool and on the way realised I had left my sun cream at home. I went on the app, ordered it and it was waiting for me at reception when I got there.
“Second is safety. You’re never worried about someone snatching your phone like happened to me in London or breaking into your apartment. It just doesn’t happen here.
“Lastly, the opportunities here are endless. You’ll get a job faster if you’re British. Companies see us as trustworthy, honest and hardworking and are keen to employ us.
“You will definitely be at the front of the queue if you are British.
“I know back home that people are constantly worried about crime and the cost of living and new taxes that might come along. But you don’t have any of those crime worries here and although it is expensive, I think London is probably just as pricey now.
“Apart from my family and friends, the only thing I miss about home is Tesco – and Greggs sausage rolls. But you can even get them in Dubai now.”
Business drive
The Sun also spoke to businesswoman Chloe Langer, who upped sticks from a lonely life in Milton Keynes to build a life in the Middle Eastern city.
Running two successful businesses, she now barely has time to stare out of her 18th-floor office window.
But if she ever does, the view takes in the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, which towers above Dubai’s gleaming skyline.
The stunning vista helps remind her of just how far she has come since she was studying international marketing at university in England and dreaming of being her own boss.
Five tips for making a career in Dubai
EVER dreamed of taking the leap and moving to Dubai to start a new career – or even your own business? Here are Chloe’s top five tips.
- Be prepared to work hard. There are incredible opportunities here, but competition is fierce. Dubai isn’t the “easy Eldorado” people imagine from the outside, you have to be ready to hustle, adapt, and deliver excellence every single day.
- Meet people in person. Relationships really matter here. People want to connect face-to-face, and that’s one of the things I love about doing business in Dubai. But it also means that things often move forward only when you’re physically present, not just on Zoom.
- Business never stops. The UAE has a true 24/7 business culture. It’s completely normal for clients to call on a Sunday night or suggest meetings over the weekend. Flexibility and responsiveness are key.
- Embrace the cultural melting pot. You’ll work with people from every corner of the world, which is fascinating and full of learning, but it also means navigating different communication styles, expectations, and definitions of things like “urgency” or “deadlines.”
- Stay positive and open-minded. Dubai changes fast, and that’s what makes it exciting. Keep learning, stay adaptable, and see challenges as opportunities to grow.
Chloe, 32, said: “Dubai is an amazing place, and it’s whatever you make of it.
“If you work hard, there’s a lot more opportunities, but it’s tough as well.
“I have had setbacks but each time I got up, brushed myself off and emerged stronger. You’ve got to keep growing.”
Chloe spent part of her childhood growing up in the South of France with entrepreneur parents who later emigrated to America, where they now run a restaurant.
She developed a love of business from them and studied economics and international relations at Sussex University before gaining a masters in international marketing.
She was working in marketing for a cosmetics company when lockdown hit – and found herself single and living alone in Milton Keynes.
Chloe said: “It was very depressing, but it did inspire me to take the leap and build my own company.
“As lockdown continued I made a list of places around the world that were opening up and where it was the easiest to launch a company. Dubai was on the list.
“I love to travel but Dubai was never in my thoughts – I had quite a stereotype of it which I think a lot of people do.
“I thought it was very superficial and blingy, but I now know there’s so much more to it.
“In April 2021, I flew to Dubai with a suitcase and nothing else and set up a marketing agency – but sadly things didn’t go smoothly to begin with.”
Legal and regulatory difficulties led to her first company folding, but she learnt from the experience and had another go.
Chloe now has two companies – a marketing agency with a 15-strong-and growing client list, and a real estate investment firm.
You can make a lot more money, but you also have to work a lot more
Chloe
She added: “The growth here is really a snowball effect and there are more opportunities compared to the UK.
“But at the same time, it’s non-stop. Clients think nothing of contacting you at 9pm on a Sunday. You can make a lot more money, but you also have to work a lot more.
“As for life outside of work – Dubai is completely different from what I imagined.
“There is so much to do here outside. There’s a huge cycling community and great places to go hiking outside of Dubai. It’s a really beautiful country.
“If you want to come and party, you can. If you have kids, there’s amazing schools.
“It’s not as expensive as people think to live here. Honestly, I think London is more expensive.
“And it’s safe, unlike London.”
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