The Chancellor’s Mansion House address is a key event in the financial and related professional services industry calendar and will be closely watched by both domestic and international investors.
The speech is a unique opportunity to build on key themes from previous speeches and events, elaborating on the government’s vision for growth and the industrial strategy, as well as the role of financial and related professional services. This would give our industry the clarity on the policy approach it needs to invest in the UK across the course of a Parliament.
On behalf of our members, we have been engaging with HM Treasury over the past few months to set out four key policy areas for strong partnership between the government and our industry to deliver on shared priorities, particularly delivering inclusive growth across the UK.
1) UK capital markets
UK capital markets are essential for driving the government's growth mission by providing investment to British businesses of all sizes, especially in the eight priority sectors and the transition to net zero. With over 5.6 million small and medium-sized companies across the UK, and over 1,000 companies listed on UK main markets, the government must work to the UK’s strengths and focus on revitalising both the supply and demand sides of UK capital markets to ensure economic activity and job creation develop and remain in the UK.
2) Pensions
We anticipate a progress update on the Pensions Investment Review and detail on next steps for the Pensions Bill. We supported government’s focus on pension consolidation in phase I of their review, but we recommend an overarching emphasis on:
- building a considered and consensus-based approach to reform to build stability and confidence in the pension system
- shifting the focus of pension investing from minimising cost to maximising long-term value
- increasing the attractiveness and incentivising greater pension fund investment in UK assets
- consulting further with the industry on contract-based versus trust-based DC schemes
- ensuring solvency rules enable insurers to invest at scale and pace.
3) Green and sustainable finance
The industry plays a crucial role in facilitating the transition to a net zero and nature-positive economy. We hope to see the Chancellor use the Mansion House speech to set out the government’s long-term policy approach for the net-zero transition, outlining policy measures and incentives to attract private investment at the scale required.
4) Regulation and risk culture
To deliver the growth mission, the industry needs a stable, proportionate and predictable regulatory environment, providing businesses and investors the certainty they need to invest in the UK. We recommend that the Chancellor uses her Mansion House speech to set out how she will deliver such an environment.
