Ahead of the Chancellor’s autumn statement, TheCityUK has published a series of recommendations to drive economic growth and ensure the continued resilience and competitiveness of the UK as a world-leading international financial centre.
The ‘Six-point plan for growth: the enabling role of financial and related professional services’ is focused on ensuring the UK remains a trusted place to do business and invest. It also makes clear that the UK’s reputation and success as an international financial centre depends on high standards of regulation, a stable and predictable regulatory regime, and regulators that are operationally independent and efficient.
To deliver this, it suggests that any future changes should have a proven net-positive impact; provide clarity, coherence, and predictability; and ensure the UK’s continued competitiveness.
Priorities include:
- Taking a clear, coherent and predictable approach to financial regulation: ensuring it is proportionate, tailored to the UK market and agile. Any government intervention powers introduced should be clearly defined and used sparingly.
- Delivering regulatory reform: making it a priority to deliver the Financial Services and Markets Bill and the extensive list of reforms recommended by government-backed reviews, such as Hill and Kalifa.
- Ensuring financial regulators are focused on the UK’s competitiveness: delivering the international competitiveness and economic growth secondary objective for regulators through the Financial Services and Markets Bill and ensuring it is meaningfully and transparently applied.
- Focusing on growth, innovation and sustainability: harnessing the power of technology in finance (e.g. the use of distributed ledger technology) and mobilising private-sector finance for the global economic transition to net-zero carbon.
- Creating a simplified and streamlined tax system that drives competitiveness: supporting firms to grow their businesses and making the UK an attractive destination for international investors and financial and related professional services firms to do business.
- Policy and regulation that encourages a Global Britain: supporting the industry in trading with the world and exporting financial products and services to new markets and attracting investment into the UK, for example by creating a UK-US digital economy agreement.
Miles Celic, Chief Executive Officer, TheCityUK said, “It is encouraging to hear the Prime Minister talk of placing economic stability, resilience and growth at the heart of this government’s agenda, which will only be possible if forthcoming regulation provides stability, predictability and a competitive return on investment.
“Reforms should be built around a careful, considered approach, ensuring that regulation is clear, proportionate, tailored to the UK’s needs, and supports the industry’s international competitiveness.
“We look forward to working with industry, government and regulators to maintain and grow the UK’s reputation as a leading international financial centre and drive economic growth across the country.”