I recently came to this country from India where I have been managing a leading global automotive company. I believed that the UK would be the next best place to set up shop, grow the business and create jobs and opportunity. How wrong I was.
Stammer’s latest waffled reset speech has done nothing to win back business confidence. In fact, the government have in effect conceded that they cannot deliver the missions in which they were elected to deliver.
The Labour government and their recent budget have created a hostile business environment seemingly hell bent on strangling investment and growth. I know many foreign and domestic investors and business leaders are feeling the same way about the current government.
Business leaders like me feel totally abandoned and the budget has only exacerbated this feeling which will ensure the economy remains stagnant whilst innovative economies thrive and continue to overtake the UK.
The government appear incapable of providing an innovative approach to the economy and have instead chosen that the usual ‘tax and spend’ method as their way to achieve ‘growth’ but increases in national insurance and a general disincentivised and non-transparent tax system has resulted in any kind of growth looking unlikely.
It is also worth noting the context and impact that a Trump Presidency will have on the UK economy. Experts have outlined the likelihood that a Trump presidency will result in the US having the fastest growth in the G7 meaning the government have failed in this pledge of being the fastest growing economy in the UK.
It is clear to see why this will be the result of a Trump Presidency; the US is likely to vastly deregulate the economy and provide attractive incentives for businesses and investors to settle in the US.
The UK government should learn lessons from a Trump Presidency and begin treating the UKs finances and economy as a business where potential investors like me can receive a return on investment rather than the current model where the government takes from wealth creators and fail to deliver.
The government must collaborate with business leaders such as myself and take lessons from successful global economies who attract investment. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves seem to enjoy patronising business with warm words at conferences and slick roundtables, but they fall depressingly short on substance and action.
Without a change of course, investment, both foreign and domestic, will continue to flood out of the country. I personally know many wealthy individuals from India who were looking at the UK as a solid investment proposition but since the budget and a general belief that the government doesn’t want investors and innovators, they are now looking at investing in countries such as Switzerland and the UAE who have a tax system which incentives investment.
Without investment, the government will have no chance of achieving any form of growth and the poorest people in the UK will suffer and taxes will only rise further.
The government must look to adopt clearer transparency in the way we tax individuals, it should be made clear to foreign investors as to where their taxes would be invested and the government should also look at initiatives that would combine transparency and attractiveness of investment, for example the government should list major infrastructure projects that investors can support the government on and in exchange investors could receive some kind of relief in their taxes.
The current tax regime in the UK stifles the attractiveness of the UK to investors and lacks innovation.
I love this country, but it breaks my heart to see it governed by a Labour Party that simply doesn’t want me and my business here. The government must revaluate how to achieve growth and fast. Otherwise, the cost to us all will be too much to take.
Mandhira Kapur Smith is the Founder and Chairwoman of SMIC Autoparts Pvt Ltd, a global leader in the automotive sector, based in India