Starmer vows ‘regulation overhaul’ to attract investors

‘Private sector investment is the way we rebuild our country’

• Pramod Thomas
• 14 October, 2024

By: Pramod Thomas

PRIME MINISTER Keir Starmer will on Monday (14) tell international business leaders that his government will “rip out the bureaucracy that blocks investment” as he hosts a London summit aimed at securing much-needed funds.

The prime minister has placed great importance on the International Investment Summit in London, and is hoping that the announcement of billions of pounds of international investment in UK projects will overshadow its chaotic build-up.

Meanwhile, Britain asked its antitrust regulator to make growth and investment a priority.

Starmer will tell investors that Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) would be asked to prioritise growth, investment and innovation, and that the focus of other major regulators would also be reviewed.

“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,” he will say, according to advance speech extracts.

The CMA is independent but receives some strategic guidance from the government and is accountable to parliament.

His Labour party won a thumping majority in July’s election but has seen his government’s popularity plummet following a series of missteps, with a recent YouGov poll showing only 18 per cent of the public approved of its performance.

The prime minister will tell business leaders that his focus is “not the days or hours of the news grid”, but on the “golden opportunity” his electoral mandate presents for delivering his mission of growing the UK economy.

“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 say, according to extracts released by his Downing Street office.

He will promise that where regulation is currently “stopping us building the homes, the data centres, warehouses, grid connectors, roads, train lines, you name it then mark my words –- we will get rid of it.

“We will rip out the bureaucracy that blocks investment and we will make sure that every regulator in this country take growth as seriously as this room does,” he will add.

Ministers are set to announce billions worth of major investment deals in AI, life sciences and infrastructure, having already unveiled £24 billion ($31.4bn) in green energy projects, including £12bn by Spanish giant Iberdrola and £8bn by Danish firm Orsted.

But the build-up to the summit has been dominated by criticism over its organisation, its failure to attract top names and a row involving shipping company P&O’s Dubai owners DP World that put a £1bn investment project in jeopardy.

Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, the chairman DP World, threatened not to attend the summit after transport minister Louise Haigh and deputy prime minister Angela Rayner called P&O’s employment practices “unscrupulous” and “exploitative”.

Last-ditch talks with the government ensued and the Times reported on Saturday (12) that bin Sulayem would take part after all and an announcement about the P&O investment is still expected.

While around 200 private sector executives are expected to attend, many multinational bosses and tech titans have decided to give it a miss.

Even the opportunity to meet King Charles III at the closing reception, planned for Monday evening, failed to entice them.

In a critical article on Friday (11), the Financial Times partly attributed the summit’s poor turnout to concerns over its “quality and organisation”.

Five days before the event, the start time and venue had still not been confirmed.

Two foreign companies seeking urgent information were reportedly astonished to receive an “out-of-office” message from the organisers, added the FT.

Then the highly secret guest list was revealed by mistake, when the organisers sent an email to all confirmed participants without hiding their addresses.

The timing of the summit — which meets the government’s promise to organise the event before its 100th day in office — has also caused unease.

It falls two weeks before the first Labour budget, when businesses are steeling themselves for a possible rise in capital gains tax.

David Stevenson, fund manager at Amati Global Investors, said there was “no silver bullet” to improving investor sentiment towards the UK, with tax incentives and improvements to tax reliefs “difficult now given the fiscal position”.

(Agencies)