Andrew Griffith
@griffitha
The U.K. is a wonderful country but in London Tech Week this year there is a definite negative ‘vibe shift’ following news about Wise and Alphawave and others.
London risks becoming a ‘flyover state’ as talent and money heads instead to cities such as Paris, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh.
Labour’s attacks on business and investors are turning London into hostile territory for wealth creators, just as Sadiq Khan’s refusal to police our streets or the underground is making them think twice about their families living in the capital. What was once the financial epicentre of the world and a safe, high trust place to live is becoming a high tax, high crime horror-show.
Actions have consequences, and since Labour took office over £140bn in London listings has been cancelled, relocated, or otherwise lost to exchanges elsewhere. This comes at a cost. Our financial sector accounts for almost 10 per cent of our GDP — no growth strategy is credible without it.
When first elected this government had the chance to set out London’s stall as a beacon of stability when other markets seemed more volatile but this was squandered by the Chancellor initially trash talking the economy followed by the actual self-harm of raising taxes, raising spending and fiddling the fiscal rules. In particular, the changes to the taxation of international investors has seen millionaires fleeing the UK at a rate of one every 45 minutes and – by some estimates – fully ten percent of non-domiciled investors having already left. Amongst them Guillaume Pousaz, the Checkout founder, sending a signal to other tech entrepreneurs who tend to cluster together.
Whilst some write off London, in my view as former City Minister it is still fixable, but the government would have to get a grip and fast.
That would involve a further push on regulatory culture, new investment visas, reversing her global tax grab, more openness to cryptocurrencies, encouragement for retail investors, pushing back on ESG burdens and looking again at disincentives like stamp duty on shares.
Instead of wasting time and energy on mandating how Labour politicians will invest your retirement savings, we must tackle the deep-seated regulatory culture of risk aversion which sees far too much investment in low return gilts rather than growth shares such as the very companies moving their listings overseas.
Of course, this shift to higher return assets would be easier for the government to embrace if they weren’t themselves conflicted by having to sell gilts in order to fund their profligate public sector spending spree.
Under new management we Conservatives have a positive vision for Britain’s businesses where we can drive growth and take a chainsaw to the regulations and lawyers that throttle or slow innovation and investment. A whole rewiring of the state, the economy and the regulations that underpin them.
Very pro-crypto
regulators have had entirely defensive attitude to growth.
Cryptocurrencies | The Guardian
