Prime Minister Keir Starmer opens his International Investment Summit at London’s Guildhall today, and is expected to promise to rip up the red tape, “chop and change, policy churn and sticking plasters”, which have deterred investment in Britain, and acted as a brake on economic growth.  “Where [regulation] is stopping us building the homes, the data centres, warehouses, grid connectors, roads, trainlines, you name it then, mark my words – we will get rid of it,” Starmer is set say, adding: “We will rip out the bureaucracy that blocks investment and we will make sure that every regulator in this country takes growth as seriously as this room does.” “Private sector investment is the way we rebuild our country and pay our way in the world. This is a great moment to back Britain,” he will tell the conference, announcing he will also charge The Competition and Markets Authority with prioritising growth and fostering innovation. Speakers and panellists at the event include: - Blackrock CEO Larry Fink; former Google chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt; Pushmeet Kohli, vice president of Research at Google DeepMind; Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer of Alphabet; David A Ricks, chair and CEO of Eli Lilly; Alex Kendall, CEO of Wayve; Greg Jackson,CEO of Octopus Energy; ex-England manager Gareth Southgate and Aviva boss Amanda Blanc. Some of these signed a letter to The Times saying greater stability had increased the UK's attractiveness and that there was now a "very real opportunity for the UK to grow its economy by attracting international investment". Other signatories to that letter included major banks such as Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. Up to £50bn in investment is expected to be unveiled at the summit, including £20bn investment by Australian infrastructure giant Macquarie, whose MD Shemara Wikramanayake is also attending and speaking at the summit. The event will end with an evening reception at St Paul’s Cathedral hosted by King Charles.

However, the summit was plunged into disarray over the weekend when P&O Ferries owner DP World put on hold plans to use the event to announce a £1bn investment in in its London Gateway container port and said DP World CEO Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem would no longer attend the summit. The political row ensued following comments by Transport Secretary Louise Haigh and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner who, in an official Government press release announcing new worker protections, included comments they would “prevent another P&O Ferries scandal”. Rayner and Haigh also described the firm as ‘rogue operators’ and urged a customer boycot. Haigh boasted said had told the Department for Transport not to have any dealings with either P&O or its parent company, and Rayner described P&O’s decision to fire 800 staff and replace them with lower paid agency workers in 2022 as “outrageous” and “exactly why we’re taking bold action”. Former Business Minister and Conservative Party Leadership Candidate Kemi Badenoch waded in, telling the Mail on Sunday: “Labour's student politics was bad in Opposition. In Government it is costing us real money and real jobs. To watch £1 billion and thousands of jobs nearly disappear because of Louise Haigh's foolish comments is painful because we've still got five years of this, and at this rate there won't be much of an economy left.”  The Government was forced to backtrack on the official press release: Downing Street then said Haigh’s comments were “her own personal view” and that they didn’t “represent the view of the Government”. Sulayem then said he would then attend the event and the investment also looked to be back on the table. Rayner and Haigh, however, were said by a Labour insider who spoke to The Observer yesterday to be “hopping mad” at Downing Street after the Prime Minister “threw them under a bus”. Meanwhile, The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Sainsbury’s largest shareholder, sold a £306m stake in the supermarket, just a week after CEO Simon Roberts warned that Budget uncertainty fuelled by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves was hitting sales, adding to the Government’s woes. The Sainsbury share sale reduced QIA’s holding from 14.2% to around 9.2%.

Top rate taxpayers are expected to pay more than two fifths of all Income Tax this year, meaning Britain is now reliant on just 1.13m workers. According to official data from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), taxpayers who pay income tax at the 45p rate are expected to contribute to the Treasury a sum of £110,000 each, on average, in the 2024-25 financial year, a total of £124bn. That is more than is raised from Corporation Tax, and more than the amount that the Treasury receives annually from fuel duties, council tax and business rates combined. Income tax is the single biggest revenue raiser for the Treasury, and is expected to generate £300bn overall this year. There were 950,000 45p rate taxpayers in 2023-24. 29.5m basic rate taxpayers are expected to contribute £82.8bn to the Treasury, a sum representing 28% of income tax revenues. 6.3m higher rate taxpayers who will pay roughly £93.7bn, some 31% of revenue.

Hiring has slowed dramatically as bosses fear the prospect of tax raids in the Budget later this month, according to a survey of members of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC). Only 56% of companies are currently trying to recruit new workers, the lowest percentage since the second quarter of 2021, when covid lockdowns and other restrictions were in place. The BCC’s Jane Gratton said: “There’s considerable uncertainty for business right now. They are concerned about potential tax rises heading their way in the Budget. They’re also worried that changes to employment rights might increase costs and complexity”. She added: “The Government needs to drive growth and ensure there’s no drop in momentum.  The upcoming Budget is a golden opportunity to give firms reason to be optimistic”.

500 entrepreneurs have written to Chancellor Rachel Reeves warning her against making any changes to either Capital Gains Tax (CGT) or business asset disposal relief (BADR) in her Budget on 30^th October. Attempts to raise money for the Treasury in this way “should be resisted,” not least because they may “end up lowering the tax take”, the entrepreneurs said. “It has been reported that your officials have modelled the impact of increasing CGT as high as 33% to 39%,” the group of founders said, adding: “Higher CGT or any restrictions on BADR would make this relief less competitive at a time when the rest of the world is making their reliefs more competitive. It would mean the UK has the second-highest CGT rate in Europe, and jeopardise the success of our country’s startup ecosystem by enormously weakening the incentive individuals have to build businesses. Businesses need clear and definitive reassurances right now.” Signatories to the letter include the founders of Signal AI, Yonder, Oaknorth Bank, Lantum, CMR Surgical, and Zopa.

The Tony Blair Institute and think-thank Onward have concluded that London’s stock markets are “not fit for purpose” and have called for the AIM, London’s junior stock exchange, to be ditched. A report from the two argues that the UK’s ‘ailing’ capital markets need “radical surgery” to be saved.  It complains The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has become “dependent on legacy firms” with limited growth potential compared to tech businesses, while AIM has “failed in its stated purpose of providing a home for scaling businesses” and should therefore be merged fully with the main market. The report also recommended maintaining tax breaks for investors in junior market stocks, slashing red tape, and establishing a £1bn ‘Growth Capital Fund’ to create five large-scale growth investors focused on science and tech firms. Chancellor Rachel Reeves is rumoured to be considering scrapping inheritance tax relief on AIM shares, a move left-wing think-tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies says could raise £1.6bn annually. Last week, City AM claimed that one investment bank, which it declined to name, urged all of its AIM-listed to flee the exchange or announce emergency share buybacks amid fears that a punishing inheritance tax raid could trigger a sell-off. There were 1,694 companies listed on AIM at its peak in 2007, but only 704 were listed at the end of August this year.

Andrew Bresler, who heads up the UK subsidiary of Danish-headquartered Saxo Bank, says red tape brought in by regulators after the financial crisis to protect consumers has gone “too far”. Regulations come with “significant costs” that harm competition, he added. The Telegraph reports Bresler as saying: “If I think about how many people pre-financial crisis versus post-financial crisis I would need, there are probably 30% to 40% more people to meet the regulatory requirements. That’s a lot more people than beforehand. “It has definitely not been cost free. There is an opportunity cost. It is not done in a vacuum. I do wonder if the regulation has gone too far or is not pointed in the right direction.” Reforming regulation and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) would do far more to revive the flailing London stock market than other suggestions such as scrapping stamp duty on shares, e believes. The Government is exploring how to overhaul the FCA amid concerns that it has failed to promote growth.  

Mortgage lenders including TSB, Leeds Building Society, Coventry Building Society, Paragon Bank, and Aldermore Bank, as well as the Mortgage Advice Bureau and the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries have urged the Chancellor to give homeowners a Stamp Duty refund if they make energy upgrades to their homes. In an open letter to Rachel Reeves, they argued this would be a big incentive to help homeowners make upgrades as part of the UK’s drive to get to net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Homeowners should either receive their stamp duty bill back in full once they have completed works, or get a rebate for the cost of any works that they undertake, the letter said.

Charlie Nunn, CEO Lloyds Bank, has said the cost of a mortgage is "unlikely" to return to the low levels seen over the past decade. The boss of the Britain’s largest mortgage lender said he expected rates to come down, but not to the near-zero rates they were during the 2010s. He also warned the current trend of rate cuts could come to "an abrupt halt" for any manner of reasons.

Employees at Bidfood, a government contractor which supplies meals to the armed forces, are considering strike action. Workers who are members of the GMB and Unite trade unions have rejected a £12.50 an hour pay proposal. The unions described the 50p increase on current wages as “poverty pay rates” in a letter to Defence Procurement Minister Maria Eagle, saying the company “can afford to do better for the workers keeping our armed forces fed”. The company posted operating profits of £57m in 2023 and paid out £18m in dividends to shareholders. In a letter to members this week, unions said they were preparing options for “a jointly coordinated industrial action ballot”. Bidfood holds a £115m contract to supply “deployable food” to the army, as well as contracts to provide meals for prisoners.

Shipbuilder Harland & Wolff looks set to be bought out of administration by Spanish state-owned giant Navantia, according to The Daily Telegraph which says it understands the two are in exclusive talks.  The sale would include all four of the company’s yards – in Belfast; Appledore, Devon; Arnish on the Isle of Lewis; and Methil, Fife – which collectively employ around 1,000 workers, the newspaper claims.  

Two small drink makers in Suffolk have been told by Essex and Suffolk Water that they cannot increase their supply to meet greater demand for their products. In a letter to small companies, seen by The Guardian, the water company said: “You should not plan to increase your mains water use if it is for non-domestic purposes.” “Without [this] moratorium we will not have sufficient water to meet all existing and new mains water demand until we have developed the new water supplies,” the letter added. Ryan Luke, MD of the Heart of Suffolk Distillery in Bacton, which received such a letter, said: “Water is fundamental to the production of our spirits. We are constantly increasing the number of distillations we carry out … and will be using more water to match our growth.” Limiting supply could force him to move the company, he said, regretfully, as “we love where we are and have spent a lot of money and time building the distillery up. To relocate would add financial pressures.” Meanwhile Alan Ridealgh, who runs the Humber Doucy Brewery with his son John, said: “I’m extremely frustrated. We would have to close – if we can’t have more water here, then we will not reach the point of profitability. Or we would need to move”.

Swedish battery giant Northvolt, which valued at more than $12bn (£9bn) in 2022, is “scrambling to raise hundreds of millions of euros to shore up its finances after a global downturn in demand for electric cars,” The Telegraph reports. Investors, meanwhile, are writing off nearly the entire value of their stakes, among them the London-listed Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, one of Northvolt’s biggest shareholders, which has cut as much as 85% from the value of its holdings, according to filings published this month. The fund, managed by Baillie Gifford, now values its shares in the business at just £57m, compared to £380m in 2022.  On Friday, Reuters reported that Northvolt was in the process of raising around $200m in short-term funding from customers and lenders. Northvolt was founded by former Tesla executive Peter Carlsson. He raised billions of euros in debt and equity to build more environmentally friendly EV batteries, which the firm says have 90% lower carbon emissions than those of rivals.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX yesterday caught a discarded booster from its Starship rocket for the first time, returning it to the launch pad after its fifth test flight. The “super heavy booster” contains the fuel needed to propel the 3,000-tonne rocket off the launchpad, but is then emptied and detached from the main body of the rocket. On this occasion, it flew itself back to the launchpad and was plucked out of the air by a set of giant ‘chopstick’ style mechanical fingers. “This is a day for the engineering history books,” a SpaceX spokesman said in a livestream of the procedure. Being able to reuse components is a huge advantage for SpaceX’s plans for interplanetary travel between the Earth and Mars.  “The tower has caught the rocket!!” Musk posted on X following the launch, adding: “If civilization is reasonably stable for the next ~30 years, a self-sustaining city of a million+ people will be built on Mars.”

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