Boris Johnson should take a lesson from Emmanuel Macron to boost UK’s economic growth
Boris Johnson should follow in the footsteps of Emmanuel Macron by ensuring Britain is made a “natural home for investors,” the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) has said.
In launching a new 10-point manifesto to boost Britain’s economic growth, the CPS published new researching showing investors are worried about the UK’s trajectory and concerned about the government’s approach to it.
The plan to make Britain more business friendly calls on the government to cancel the corporation tax increase, strengthen non-dom tax protections, and give the UK’s cities greater autonomy to market themselves to investors.
The paper raises concerns that UK growth has slowed significantly since the financial crash of 2008, due to the country’s ongoing “productivity and investment crisis.”
One investor surveyed by the CPS told the Tufton Street think tank that the Gulf states now see the UK as a “safety deposit box for real estate” instead of a place with “opportunities for real growth”.
The report comes after investors raised concerns that Britain has become a less stable and less predictable place to invest, whilst France – under President Macron – has undertaken far reaching efforts to woo investors who might have previously considered the UK to be their natural home.
The CPS document comes after Boris Johnson reportedly told EU diplomats “F**k business,” at an event in 2018.
One investor told the CPS that “visiting Macron is now the key pit stop everyone makes on the way to Davos, not going to London”.
Other business leaders said Macron has taken a relentless approach to attracting investors, by “rolling out the red carpet for asset managers and wealth managers.”
The think tank’s report also says the UK has failed to take advantage of Brexit, as it warns the country’s investment prospects have instead suffered since the UK’s exit from the European Union.
Another interviewee said the UK “should be showing more swagger” around Brexit in order to convince global businesses that they should list on the London stock exchange and build their companies in the UK.
Howard Shore, Chairman of Shore Capital, said: “In post-Brexit Britain, it is essential that we re-establish our own economic identity and play to our many strengths as a nation to restore the entrepreneurial environment and enthusiasm that existed during the Thatcher government in the 1980s.”