Investment Association: Budget needs to create the conditions for the ‘economy to thrive’
Friday 26 February 2021
Investment managers are today calling on the Chancellor to deliver a Budget on 3 March that will support the economy’s Covid recovery and strengthen the UK’s international competitiveness post-Brexit.
In its Budget submission, the Investment Association (IA) recommends measures to enhance the global standing of the UK investment management industry, protect consumers, drive investment across the UK and create jobs.
These include:
- Launching the Long Term Asset Fund, a new fund structure that allows wider access to investment in private companies and infrastructure such as renewable energy projects. This will offer greater diversification for key customer groups, including DC pension schemes, while also providing essential capital to support jobs and growth across the UK.
- A coherent plan underpinning all policy for the transition to net zero, including sector-specific actions that will be necessary. Investment managers are keen to work with policymakers to identify clear routes to transition for different sectors of the economy. This will help investment managers factor climate transition risks more accurately into their investment decisions for the long-term benefit of their clients and the planet.
- Reviewing the ISA rules to ensure they accommodate the full range of asset classes available to retail investment fund customers. The industry is also keen to work with the government to explore how ISAs can help address intergenerational wealth gaps and provide further opportunities to younger savers.
- A new legal obligation on online platforms to stop hosting scam adverts, ensuring that they do not facilitate fraud, and properly protect consumers from the menace of online harms.
- Ensuring the UK remains an attractive place to do business globally, with measures to strengthen the UK as an investment management centre, including reviewing the purpose and the scope of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and wider measures to maintain and grow a globally competitive fund regime.
Chris Cummings, Chief Executive of the Investment Association, said:
“Now is the time, as the country emerges from the pandemic and our departure from the EU has concluded, to ensure we build back better and create the conditions for the economy to thrive.
“That’s why we need a Budget to guarantee growth, which supports companies as they recover from the Covid crisis. The investment management industry has helped firms of all types raise over £22bn in new capital so far during the crisis and will continue to invest in the UK’s economic recovery, creating jobs and generating tax revenue.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
The Investment Association’s Budget representation for 2021 can be found here
For further information, please contact:
Katie Martin, Head of Communications: [email protected]
T: +44 (0)20 7269 4655
Helen Ayres, Senior Communications Manager: [email protected]
T: +44 (0)20 7269 4620
David Parton, Senior Communications Executive: [email protected]
T: +44 (0)20 7269 4625
IA press office: [email protected]
T: 020 7269 4696
About the Investment Association (IA):
- The IA champions UK investment management, supporting British savers, investors and businesses. Our 250 members manage £8.5 trillion of assets and the investment management industry supports 113,000 jobs across the UK.
- Our mission is to make investment better. Better for clients, so they achieve their financial goals. Better for companies, so they get the capital they need to grow. And better for the economy, so everyone prospers.
- Our purpose is to ensure investment managers are in the best possible position to:
- Build people’s resilience to financial adversity
- Help people achieve their financial aspirations
- Enable people to maintain a decent standard of living as they grow older
- Contribute to economic growth through the efficient allocation of capital.
- The money our members manage is in a wide variety of investment vehicles including authorised investment funds, pension funds and stocks and shares ISAs.
- The UK is the second largest investment management centre in the world, after the US and manages over a third (37%) of all assets managed in Europe.
