RISHI Sunak yesterday toasted the UK as “one of the best places in the world to do business” as he turned Hampton Court Palace into the shop window for foreign investment.
The Prime Minister called in the Beefeaters to welcome business royalty with 200 delegates ranging from Jamie Dimon, boss of JP Morgan, to Steve Schwarzman, boss of mega investor Blackstone and the Abu Dhabi owners of Manchester City.
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Other attendees who feasted on a Fortnum & Mason afternoon tea and were later whisked to an evening reception at Buckingham Palace included Wael Sawan, boss of Shell, Liv Garfield, boss of Severn Trent, luxury hand bag designer, Anya Hindmarch, and Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber who spoke about the strengths of Britain’s creative industries.
While the Global Investment Summit was meant to signal investment in modern Britain, Mr Sunak appreciated the irony of leaning heavily on British history and a 500-year-old-palace as the venue.
Mr Sunak yesterday toasted almost £30billion of foreign investment into the UK, with the majority of money coming from Australian pension funds.
The Prime Minister called recent investments from Nissan in a new car factory in Sunderland and Korea’s investment in life sciences as a “colossal vote of confidence in the UK.”
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Businesses at the summit also said Britain was attractive because of its legal system, regulation and common English language which made running a global firm easier.
ANALYSIS
IT’S all very well for the Government to say it’s pro-business but the past three years’ chop-change chaos has been the biggest barrier to spending in Britain.
The thing that companies always want is certainty.
While the Government couldn’t have helped the pandemic occurring, the war in Ukraine or the conflict between Israel and Hamas, its policy flip-flopping has created huge uncertainty.
As a result many investors have held fire and business investment has stalled. The best compliment businesses gave the Government yesterday was the “Truss economic era is over”.
Ian Stuart, HSBC boss, said: “They have brought back respectability and a bit of calm.”
Ministers can promise a lower tax regime, investment zones and red tape slashing, but what they can’t seem to guarantee is they’ll be in the job long enough to see it through.
There has been a merry-go-round in key jobs with 16 housing ministers since 2016 and eight business secretaries. It’s probably why one chief exec quipped “if you don’t like them, it’s OK — you get another one in a few months”.
Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer are making the most of this and yesterday hosted a rival briefing with 35 bosses. It wasn’t the same. But a few years ago Labour wouldn’t have known who to invite and bosses wouldn’t have turned up.
Yes vote to Metro Bank rescue
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METRO BANK has vowed to open more branches after shareholders voted in favour of its rescue finance package.
The troubled lender’s survival chances have been boosted after 90 per cent of investors voted in favour of a £925million refinancing.
Had investors rejected the capital boost from Colombian billionaire Jaime Gilinski Bacal, Metro Bank could have been deemed “unviable” and passed into Bank of England protection.
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Customer accounts would have still been protected as the Bank gives protection to savings up to £85,000.
The Bank is in talks to bolster its finances further by selling off £3billion worth of mortgages to rival Barclays.
Shares in Metro Bank rose by 4.8% to 40.85p yesterday.
Metro Bank said that it will “expand our estate of 76 stores, with new stores in the north of England over the next two years.”
New rush for gold
GOLD prices hit a six-month high yesterday as investors bet that interest rates have peaked and the US dollar weakened.
Spot gold rose by 0.4 per cent to $2,010.87 per ounce.
Traders believe the US Federal Reserve and Bank of England will start cutting interest rates next year.
Gold prices are expected to continue rising as a result, with some analysts saying they could surpass the $2,075 record set during the pandemic.
House sales up
THERE are signs of life in the housing market with sales starting to pick up again, according to the UK’s biggest property website.
Despite higher mortgage rates depressing prices, Rightmove yesterday boosted its profit forecasts on the back of more housebuilders listing newly built homes.
Rightmove said that it now expects sales to grow by up to ten per cent this year.
The firm believes its operating profits will rise by eight per cent as advertisers spend more money selling homes.
THE price of a jar of Branston Pickle has shot up by 40 per cent in the past two years with its Japanese maker blaming higher labour, ingredient and packaging costs. Mizkan Euro has owned the ploughman’s lunch staple since 2013.
HSBC’S apology
THE boss of HSBC yesterday said he was “really sorry” for a banking glitch last week that disrupted customers’ online purchases on Black Friday.
HSBC’s online and mobile banking services were disrupted meaning customers couldn’t easily transfer their salaries between accounts or pay for goods online.
Ian Stuart, boss of HSBC in the UK, told The Sun: “I’m not just a banker from planet Zog. When we let customers down I take it badly.”
HSBC confirmed that it had not been a cyber attack.
