*To be checked against delivery
Thank you, Miles.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for TheCityUK’s 2025 Annual Conference.
I also echo Miles’ thanks to our sponsors - Citadel Securities, DLA Piper and Robinhood.
While we’re a vast network, we’re here to address a shared focus, which is driving economic growth and boosting UK competitiveness.
Of course, the growth imperative is not unique to the UK, but it’s the centrepiece of our government’s ambition for our country.
And I’m pleased to see financial and related professional services recognised as an essential partner in realising that ambition across all our regions and nations.
I’m sure time flies when you’re sitting to the Speaker’s right; our government is close to completing 20 percent of their parliamentary term – or put the other way, they have just over two years to deliver meaningful change if it is to have an economic impact before the next election. So, delivering growth is not only an economic urgency, but also a political necessity.
The task is not easy – but the prize is worth pursuing with urgency and intensity.
I last addressed this conference two years ago, and argued - through a cricket metaphor - that, to get growing, the UK needed to get the run rate up by adapting more of a Bazball approach, playing on the front foot when it comes to innovation.
I stand by that sentiment, but fear that a lack of confidence to invest, a limited pool of readily investable opportunities, the increasing cost and complexity of doing business, and disincentives to taking managed risk, could not only see us becoming a mere incubator for bright ideas but also impact negatively our overall potential for national growth and the biggest downside risk of all is the risk of doing nothing.
Expanding on my cricket metaphor it is clear that we can’t always choose the condition of the pitch we play on, but we can play to our strengths and adapt our tactics.
Growth is a long game but there’s much we can do now - as a team - to improve our odds of success in the future.
In the past two years, the UK has grown more self-confident internationally.
We’re looking more stable, predictable and investible than we have done for some time.
And while there is more to be done, we’re proving to be a constructive partner in international policy:
Our relations with Europe are improving. We’ve found points of agreement on trade and defence with scope for even deeper cooperation. We continue to press for progress on financial and related professional services.
Our special relationship with the US remains strong; and arguably, the UK has so far navigated the choppy US waters with greater success than many other countries.
And we can now boast of a comprehensive free trade agreement with India - which promises much as that market grows to be the third largest in the world by 2028.
While financial services only have a back seat in trade deals, we continue to press for gains using the range of tools in our trade policy kit.
The events of 2025 have transformed the old order geopolitically. And while change brings headwinds, it also brings opportunity.
The UK has thrived in a liberalised global marketplace which has been underpinned by and contributed to our role as a truly international financial centre. In a less liberal, less global and less multilateral world we can continue to thrive if we are stable, predictable, economically strong and remain open to attracting the best and brightest from all over the world. Play our hand well, and there’s the potential to strike tailored deals on specific areas with key – and new – markets, rather than trying to align on everything, which is an increasingly forlorn ambition.
While our recent gains on the international stage are important, a strong domestic position is the true ace card to play.
And for that, we must create a winning strategy for growth.
As outlined this week in the government’s ambitious Modern Industrial Strategy, financial and related professional services are fundamental to the mission to drive growth across the UK – be that directly through our contribution to the economy or indirectly as a funder and enabler for every other sector in the strategy.
The Trade Strategy, out today, should complement this and it’s positive to see a strong focus on recognising the UK as a services powerhouse – not least given we are the world’s largest financial services exporter.
And we look forward to the unveiling next month of the Chancellor’s Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy, which we hope will help to further unleash the industry’s potential to foster growth.
Critical success factors for our economic growth and competitiveness will be a more simple, predictable and attractive approach to tax and international investment; greater regulatory and legal certainty; more digitalised markets; and a continued commitment to stimulating retail investment.
As an industry, we’re not just open for business, we’re here for people at every stage of their lives; whether they’re saving for the future, buying a home or looking to manage risk.
From our rich expertise to our deep capital markets, we bring the world in.
The UK is the world’s largest financial services net exporter; and along with related professional services, our industry generated a trade surplus of over £114bn in 2023.
We pay our way; providing over £110bn in tax in 2023 nearly enough to pay for HS2!, as well as contributing around one in every £12 of economic output last year.
And we’re a major employer, providing quality jobs to nearly 2.5 million professionals right across the country – two thirds of whom are based outside London across every region and nation.
There’s a lot to be proud of, but also much more to do if we’re to truly empower the star player of our economy and create that confident, winning strategy for growth across the UK.
I’d like to suggest four areas for our collective attention…
First, if we’re to inspire the confidence to invest here and really create a growth mindset, we need to regulate our way towards a growth mindset.
It’s our government and regulators that set the appetite for risk and we must combat our culture of safetyism that has become embedded since the financial crisis.
Rules are essential, but many have become restraints, increasing the cost and complexity of doing business in the UK.
Consumer protection must be squared with supporting competition – to keep innovation at home, we must create the conditions for safe failure.
What we’re seeing from government and the regulators is promising: from the overhaul of the UK’s capital market rules, to the Financial Conduct Authority’s new listing rules, as well as their new five-year strategy which acknowledges the need to rebalance risk and regulation to meet future needs.
It is inevitable that with more risk taking, there will be more risks which crystalise. Tolerating this additional failure will be a key part of shifting the mindset and where we can, our industry should lean into this.
Secondly, a more open mindset towards risk taking must be matched by more opportunities to invest in risk assets.
When it comes to infrastructure, we know the challenge isn’t the availability of capital, it’s having the opportunities open across the UK to which to allocate it at pace; opportunities that improve connectivity, and that are aligned with the sustainable and tech-led future we want to see flourish.
To help bridge the investment gap, TheCityUK has proposed a way to ease this age-old challenge. It involves uniting our industry’s experts and government with leaders from across the regions to develop the ‘term-sheet ready’ prospectuses needed to secure project funding to support the eight priority sectors of the Industrial Strategy and growth in our regions and nations. And I am delighted to see that the Government has adopted this proposal, with a decision to create a “Strategic Investment Opportunities Unit” within the Office of Investment. At TheCityUK, we like to think of this as a “National Investment Broker”.
This is not without its challenges, but it is a practical solution that will direct the private capital that is needed towards projects that serve our communities.
Thirdly, to reap the long-term benefits of investment, we must be able to continue to attract, retain and reskill the very best talent – talent armed with the skills of tomorrow.
Our industry thrives on the quality of its people - from across the UK and overseas. They are literally our lifeblood and should be placed at the forefront of any shared strategies for the future.
We’re not without our rivals. To out-compete markets such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Paris for the best and brightest, we’ll need to remain agile.
Our colleagues at the Financial Services Skills Commission are making great strides in building skills here in the UK and the focus on skills and talent – in particular AI skills, improving business mobility and visa reforms – was welcome in the Industrial Strategy.
Ultimately, we want to see a world-class visa scheme that attracts talent from across the world effortlessly,
and our future workforce equipped with the necessary skills and qualifications to keep us world-class, not least to keep pace with digitalisation.
Fourthly, and finally, a sustained focus on playing our part in the transition to net zero.
Collectively, we have a critical enabling role to invest the capital at scale required to finance the transition, support greater climate resilience and drive nature positive green growth.
Meeting the government’s ambitions for this agenda by 2050 will require deeper cooperation across government departments and with industry, along with a long-term policy approach and clear sector-specific strategies. This is a job that requires coordination and partnership – it cannot be done alone.
So, with a clear strategy in place, together we can regulate, invest and attract our way to generating growth across the UK.
This is of course a long-term agenda, but there are several quick gains to be had along the way.
Ultimately, confidence builds from knowing that the vision and the means to make it a reality are in place.
Our financial and related professional services industry is a powerful motor for our economy and, further enabled, it can propel growth across the whole of the UK. But there is an urgent need for bold action to fully power up that engine.
This is my last speech in my role as Chair of TheCityUK Leadership Council before I step down at the end of this month and hand over to my very capable successor Dame Anne Richards.
It has been a real privilege to have been part of the work that Miles and his team are doing to champion and promote our industry and the meaningful outcomes they are achieving.
I look forward to sitting where you are in the years to come and reflecting on the progress we have made together.
Thank you for listening.
