Photos: Drinks at St Paul's
A late update: here are some photos from the post-summit drinks reception at St Paul’s Cathedral:
Closing summary
Time for a recap.
Investors attending the Labour government’s first International Investment Summit have announced pledges totalling £63bn today, which will create an estimated 38,000 jobs.
Spending commitments include £20bn from ‘Vampire kangaroo’ Macquarie, on projects including a rollout of fast-charging electric vehicle infrastructure at motorway service stations, over £6bn of new data centres by US tech firms, an expansion of Stansted airport, and a tie-up with US pharma firm Eli Lilly.
Jackie Wild, CEO of international technical construction group TSL (which is building Google’s £800m data centre in Hertfordshire) welcomed the pledge for more data centre investment, but warned that planning reform is needed, saying:
“It’s encouraging to see the Government facilitating investment in digital infrastructure, including data centres, which will underpin the fourth industrial revolution and stimulate growth in the UK for decades to come.
However, it is essential that international businesses have confidence in Britain’s capability to deliver the physical infrastructure to back investment. Businesses like Google, Amazon and Cyrus One are prospering here but it’s important that we now see swift progress on issues like planning reform to facilitate expansion and increased investment from businesses of their profile.”
The government also secured a £1bn expansion of London Gateway port, after the row over transport secretary Louise Haigh’s criticism of its owner’s poor business practices was defused.
Opening the event, Sir Keir Starmer said the government and investors were bound together, in the “shared endeavour of prosperity”.
Growth, Starmer argued, was “vital…if we are to steer our way through a great period of insecurity and change”.
Having ‘celebrated’ 100 days in office on Saturday, Starmer pledged to fix the UK’s public service and stabilise the economy quickly, and also repair Britain’s brand “as an open, outward-looking, confident, trading nation”.
In comments that have caused alarm, Starmer pledged to “get rid” of regulations that are holding back investment, such as building homes, data centres, warehouses, grid connectors, roads, and trainlines.
Both the Green Party and the RSPB have voiced concerns about what this will mean for Britain.
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, told delegates that UK corporation tax would be capped at 25% for the lifetime of this parliament, in an attempt to give bosses some certainty.
She also warned that the government faces ‘difficult choices’ as she draws up the budget, and hinted that she is planning to raise employer national insurance contributions….
Reeves also announced that the UK Infrastructure Bank has been converted into the National Wealth Fund, which will be capitalised with £27.8bn to catalyse private investment in the market.
The Financial Times has calculated that Reeves has cut by a fifth the new money she is investing into the UK’s National Wealth Fund, though – from the £7.3bn originally pledged to just £5.8bn.
Updated
