RE: Results Day HBR10 Feb 2023 15:39
Jeremy Hunt has made Britain a no-go area for investment
AstraZeneca is the tip of the iceberg - businesses are sick of being treated like piggy banks
BEN MARLOW
CHIEF CITY COMMENTATOR
10 February 2023 • 3:20pm
Ben Marlow
The Chancellor's tax grab is pushing corporate titans away from investing in the UK
The Chancellor's tax grab is pushing corporate titans away from investing in the UK CREDIT: Zara Farrar / HM Treasury
The timing couldn’t be more perfect. On Friday, Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt hosted a summit of more than 200 prominent business figures as part of efforts to drum up fresh investment into Britain.
And what better backdrop than one of the biggest snubs this Government has ever suffered? AstraZeneca’s usually restrained boss Sir Pascal Soriot confirmed that the pharma giant had chosen to build a new state-of-the-art factory in Dublin rather than the north-west of England because of the Treasury’s punishing tax regime. Such a blow will cast a huge, almost comical, shadow over this desperate charm offensive.
Apparently the Prime Minister, who was expected to attend the gathering remotely, is hoping to build on the success of the Global Investment Summit 18 months ago when nearly £10bn of new foreign investment was pledged in a single day.
Well, good luck with that. Seriously, who is the Government trying to fool? It is almost like the last act of a drowning man.
Attendees at the latest jamboree were expected to include the bosses of big companies such as Airbus, HSBC, Nestlé and Nissan. They’re not stupid. These are sophisticated people in charge of global companies and they will invest in places that are deemed to be pro-business, which is not something you could say about the UK right now.
Corporation tax will jump to 25pc from 19pc in April, at the same time as a generous tax relief scheme for businesses is expected to end. Even the offer of a £50m state handout wasn’t enough to compensate AstraZeneca for the 15pc corporation tax rate found in Ireland, reports claim.
It is hard to remember when Britain was perceived this dimly in business circles. The Government’s approach - perhaps best described as treating businesses as little more than piggy banks to be regulated and taxed - has left top business figures visibly tearing their hair out. AstraZeneca is merely the tip of the iceberg.
The backlash was under way before Sir James Dyson’s stinging attack in this newspaper last month, but it appears to have emboldened others to speak out.
In the energy industry, it might soon be easier to tot up the projects that are going ahead, rather than the ones that are in danger of being pulled as a result of the windfall tax, which Hunt raised by 10pc to 35pc of profits at the beginning of the year.
France’s Total has said it will cut UK investment after revealing that half the $2.1bn hit it would take from windfall taxes in 2022 would come from the UK. It had previously warned of plans to abandon UK proje
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