Firms rush to relocate to low tax Britain

Firms rush to relocate in low-tax Britain


More than 40 multinational companies have inquired about relocating their
headquarters to the UK because of the cuts in corporation tax.








"I know of more than 40
multinational companies that have been looking to undertake global and regional
headquarter relocations into Britain," Mr Varley said. Photo: James
Burns






By Kamal Ahmed, and James
Quinn

9:20PM BST 04 May 2013


303 Comments




Steve Varley, the UK chairman of Ernst & Young,
revealed that the accountancy firm knew of the
significant number of firms seeking to relocate from countries such as the
USA, as well as from the Netherlands, Switzerland and Ireland.



The high figure will be a boost to George Osborne, the Chancellor, who has
made Britain's lower rates of corporation tax a centrepiece of Government
policy. The advertising giant, WPP, recently announced that it would move back
to the UK from its present headquarters in Dublin.


"I know of more than 40 multinational companies that have been looking to
undertake global and regional headquarter relocations into Britain," Mr Varley
said.


"They have the potential to bring £1bn of additional annual tax revenues and
more than 2,000 high-value senior management jobs to the country.


"There are numerous reasons for this, including real progress on the British
ambition to become one of the most competitive corporate tax regimes in the
G20."



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Mr Varley also revealed new figures which suggest that many foreign
businesses from north America and Asia believe Prime Minister David Cameron's
push to renegotiate Britain's legal agreements with the European Union would be
attractive to many businesses.

"What I'm hearing in the market is that renegotiating our relationship with
the EU would actually have little negative impact on foreign investment
decisions into the UK," he said.

"In an Ernst & Young survey of 300 investors from around the world, we
asked their reaction to Britain moving to a renegotiated and looser relationship
with the EU.

"The difference in investor attitudes across the world was really quite
surprising. Only 36pc of investors from Western Europe said reduced integration
with the EU would make the UK more attractive as an FDI [foreign direct
investment] location.

"However, both north American and Asian investors were much more positive
about the opportunity.

"Some 72pc of US and 66pc of Asian investors said that a renegotiated
relationship would actually improve the attractiveness of Britain as an FDI
location."

Mr Varley's comments come ahead of this week's major Global Investment
Conference (GIC), due to be held in London on Thursday.

The conference, now an annual event, will be held at a central London hotel
ahead of the crucial G7 finance ministers' and central bank governors' meeting
in Northern Ireland, scheduled for Friday and Saturday. Business leaders,
including Tidjane Thiam, the chief executive of insurer Prudential, and Greg
Case, chief executive of Aon, are due to attend.

The Prime Minister, as well as the Energy Secretary, Edward Davey, and the
Treasury minister and former Olympics chief, Lord Deighton, are also expected to
play a part in the day-long programme to promote the UK as a place to do
business.

Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, and Jim Flaherty,
Canadian finance minister, are also due to appear.

Lord Green, the trade and investment minister, said the Government was
committed to attracting more inward investment into the UK as it fought to find
new growth opportunities.

"Over the coming years, we aim to attract hundreds of billions of pounds in
infrastructure investment, delivering major projects in partnership with
companies and investors within the UK and overseas," he said.

The event follows on from last summer's conference, held on the eve of the
Olympic Games, which was considered a success.

The GIC event was last year supported by the British Business Embassy series
of events at Lancaster House in London.

It's not management jobs needed, we have enough of them . it's jobs for builders etc which are more important.