Congratulating Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer on his party’s election victory, John Dickie, Chief Executive at BusinessLDN, said:
“Now it has secured an historic mandate, the new Labour Government is right to prioritise growth, growth, growth. The capital’s businesses stand ready to work in partnership with Sir Keir Starmer and his team to help the UK economy secure lift off.
“Close collaboration with the private sector will be vital to turn around the fortunes of a high-tax, low productivity economy with dire government finances and stretched public services.
“This starts with no or low-cost measures which taken together will build investor confidence, unlock private investment and create jobs. These include greater clarity on future tax policy, removing stamp duty on shares to improve the UK’s attractiveness as a place to list, scrapping the Infrastructure Levy to provide certainty for developers and local authorities, reforming the planning system to speed up decision making, as well as overhauling the apprenticeship system to increase take up.
“These need to go hand in hand with longer-term growth measures from increasing the supply of affordable homes, giving the Mayor – and other metro mayors – further powers and funding to meet the needs of their local areas, to delivering UK-wide supply chains a boost with a multi-year capital funding deal for Transport for London on a par with other regions.
“Greater political alignment between Westminster and City Hall also presents an opportunity to reset the narrative on London’s relationship with the rest of the country and unleash its full potential as the UK’s engine of growth.”