World’s biggest banks pushing for £4bn post-Brexit tax cuts to boost the City
Some of the biggest banks in the world are set to demand tax cuts of up to £4bn per year following Brexit, having paid the Treasury tens of billions in additional levies since the financial crisis.
Banks want the government to show its support for its “Global Britain” slogan by convincing global financial giants to remain in the UK following the country’s departure from the bloc on 31 January, according to the Telegraph.
Leading executives are hoping to convince chancellor Sajid Javid to bolster his support for Canada and reassure international firms and investors they have not been forgotten about.
Its comes after Javid promised to lay out significant spending plans for the north of England in his March budget.
Bank chiefs claim to have plenty of offers from countries within the EU looking to attract business following Brexit.
“Macron is rolling out the deep-pile red carpet,” a source close to the requests going in to the Treasury told the Telegraph.
It is a coordinated effort between the biggest British, European and American banks, according to the report.
The City has given up hope of a mutual equivalence deal between the UK and EU to allow financial services to continue uninterrupted.
The banks are now seeking reductions to the bank levy, which was introduced after the financial crisis and is expected to make £2.3bn this year, as well as the bank surcharge, which stopped them from benefitting from cuts to corporation tax rates after 2010 – the equivalent of £1.9bn this year.
Banks argue they are important for jobs in the north of England and other regions and not just London.
Deutsche Bank and HSBC employ almost 4,000 people combined in Birmingham. JP Morgan has 4,000 employees working in Bournemouth, and there are 1,700 Barclays customer service staff in Sunderland.
Industry group TheCityUK estimates that 1.5m of the UK’s 2.3m financial service workers are based outside of the capital.
Many roles, particularly in investment banking, could be threatened by operations being moved overseas.
The Treasury declined to comment.