Yehaw, this is the wording from the CAA Microsite "After 31 December 2020, individuals will be able to hold a UK and EASA Part 66 licence concurrently.
The UK CAA is preparing to open an application process for engineers who have previously transferred their licence to another EU member state to allow the restoration of their UK licence."
The first paragraph should have been obvious from the moment the UK said it was leaving EASA. The second paragraph may have been edited since I first saw the info in late 2018 from something like "there will be a process" to "preparing an application process", but the intent has remained the same in that you will be able to get a UK Licence under a grandfather rights scheme. Combined I think it is pretty obvious what options you had. I have discussed and shown this info to a number of colleagues over the past 2 years and most of them transferred to another NAA knowing they would be able to get a UK Licence sometime in 2021. The information about recognition of EASA Licences for 2 years post Brexit has also been on the site for a while (Sept 2018 approx). There was also a lot of discussion on Airmech in late 2018/early 2019 regarding pros/cons of transfer. The information has been been known for a while. Like I said, I didn't move my licence to IAA until I knew I could get a UK Licence reissued post Brexit.