To win back business, Sunak should tear up his current playbook
Business and politics, politics and business. Dance partners, perhaps, but all too often to different tunes: whilst the private sector rips off a salsa the public sector can feel a lot more comfortable with a more staid two-step.
Right now, however, it’s hard to get the two on the same floor, let alone dancing in time, at least when it comes to the Tories. Perhaps it’s the overhang from Brexit, perhaps it’s the chaos unleashed by last year’s political drama, but it’s been far from a summer of love. So what next? How do the Tories rebuild their reputation with business and have them turn away from the warm, if slightly platitudinous, embrace of Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves?
A back-to-school playbook would look something like this – a clear tax and regulatory plan that they declare up front, in short order, and promise not to touch for five years. No more tax raids on energy industries. No more u-turns on corporation tax. Giving businesses the certainty to invest in the UK rather than having them wary of whatever cockamamie scheme the Treasury cooks up for the sake of tomorrow’s headlines.
Second, a clear pledge to back new technologies with equally innovative regulation. The exponential growth of artificial intelligence will make liberal employment law more valuable than ever, allowing firms to redeploy staff when new technology makes their jobs effectively redundant.
And third, a plan to reinvigorate capital markets – in their broadest definition. Giving retail banks incentives to lend to small business, and opening the door to private capital to flood into our private markets and indeed our listed ones, too.
Rishi Sunak may be a product of financial services but so far he hasn’t always acted like one. Let’s see if his summer break has given him time to reflect on what business needs, and deserves, from its government.