“We have long said we want London to be the capital of growth capital, supporting promising companies across the UK and internationally. Today’s measures take meaningful steps towards that goal.
“Nudging consumers to switch from cash into shares with targeted advice and a long-running marketing campaign is good for both companies and investors’ wellbeing and signals an encouraging shift in attitude to risk. However, we still want to see some or all of the ISA tax relief pegged to investing in the UK.
“Also welcome is enabling growth companies to raise funds more easily and cheaply on the market, as well as the hope they will be able to communicate better with their shareholders using a modern, digital framework.
“And setting up a Listings Taskforce to support businesses to trade shares here could be a useful innovation, especially if its work extends overseas.
“The missing piece is on tax. Scrapping stamp duty on share trading would truly unleash the UK’s capital markets and send a signal to the world. On AIM, investors would dearly love long-term certainty over Business Property Relief, an incentive that puts billions of pounds behind growing, public companies based in every part of the country.”
