IEA Director of Public Policy and Communications Matthew Lesh has been quoted in The Daily Telegraph discussing the past and future of taxation and regulation of the financial services sector.

The article said:

“Painful new taxes came in under the Conservatives. The bank levy rakes in around £1.5bn per year for the Exchequer. The bank surcharge, introduced to stop lenders benefitting from cuts to corporation tax, brought in £2.5bn in 2022-23, though that haul is falling now that corporation tax has been whacked back up again.

“Matthew Lesh at the Institute of Economic Affairs says this all pushes up the cost of capital in the City, which hits the real economy.

“‘The result you are going to have is less economic growth, lower productivity, lower wages and higher prices,’ he says.

“Yet there are also big promises for more regulation, including on ESG, the environmental, social and governance campaigns beloved of political activists.

“Lesh warns: ‘This is another huge regulatory cost on institutions’.

“Other industries face more red tape too, with a pledge for ‘much tougher regulation’ of energy.

“While this may help to streamline rules, a department called ‘Regulatory Innovation’ may well find itself dreaming up new red tape.

“Lesh adds: ‘Regulators themselves are constantly pumping out codes of conduct and guidance and consultations. It is really very heavy handed’.”

Read the full article in The Telegraph (22/06/2024, p.37) or on Yahoo! Finance and MSN.