Unnecessary uncertainty

The report is the first such fully-comprehensive investigation into the matter and the fact that it has been undertaken must be praised, as the industry body looks to strengthen its armour and publicise its far-reaching beneficial impact on the wider economy. The aforementioned £5.4bn is equivalent to 12% of the annual revenue of the whole UK financial services industry. Looking back to last year and the hostility the industry was subject to from politicians, the press and most of all trade unions, it is curious that, at the time, very few, if any, financial and professional services representatives spoke out in defence of an industry that generates an eighth of its income.

More curious still is why a Government that has built so much of its success for more than a decade on courting the City should suddenly make a slap-dash change to such a key part of the fiscal fabric - capital gains tax. What would be even stranger would be for that Government to then mutter something about making some changes to the proposed changes and then appear to ignore the issue altogether. That is exactly what has happened.

Hopefully by the time this issue reaches your desk, the Chancellor will have ended the stalemate with some clarification as to what is going to happen at the beginning of April. As the economic outlook worsens, the last thing the industry needs is uncertainty caused by the Government.

Yours sincerely,

Sarah Young, Senior Editor, unquote"

Tel: +44 20 7004 7527

sarah.young@incisivemedia.com.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Send to  

• Topics
• UK / Ireland