'Punishing high earning individuals sounds attractive, but it misses the key point' - Sir Brandon Lewis

Punishing high earning individuals can sound attractive, but it misses the key point that in a global economy so many businesses can locate wherever they wish. If our regulatory and tax regime is not competitive, people and business will leave and will take their spend and jobs with them.

The UK needs to be a country where people want to do business and base their business. In opposition, and early days in government, Labour made positive noises about wanting to deliver more housebuilding.

This is super news and I really hope they will do that, I fully support the intent. Yet actions must match rhetoric.

In the last few days we have heard worrying noises about possible changes to stamp duty. It indicates a worrying lack of appreciation of how interwoven the housing industry is.

If stamp duty rises it hurts first time buyers the most, as it discourages sales of homes and that restriction in demand leads to a drop in supply. That means less building and that means less jobs & less economic growth.

Businesses across all sectors drive growth as they invest and create jobs and security for more people, which in turns lead to better tax returns for our public services.

Despite claiming that she has inherited an economic problem of gigantic proportions – it has been puzzling to watch Rachel Reeves wait almost six months to share her economic blueprint with the rest of us.

The briefing and leaking around this budget is not a good sign and it is bad for the financial markets too, investors want stability not conjecture and they want to see policies that promote growth. High tax does not do that, on individuals or businesses.

High earning individuals already pay more tax and they are also the people who drive investment in our economy. They and their businesses matter.

I hope that we will see the Chancellor looking to outline changes that deliver a real incentive to invest in the UK, bringing more investment in and boosting our economy through output and job creation.

We must allow businesses real space to grow and genuine opportunities to invest. We must avoid pushing investors out of the UK in search of more tax efficient regions.

That requires a regulatory framework that encourages innovation at home and makes the UK ‘the only place’ for those looking to develop or grow a business.

As we see cyber, blockchain and AI develop, we know that innovation is the root for an exciting future with investment opportunities and job creation. Innovators need the space to test things and too much regulation can threaten that.

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We need to see a structure that supports and encourages the risk takers that drive our economic growth and across sectors like construction, which are so integral to our economy.

Housebuilding is still a key sector in our economy, and we need to see both delivery of the promised supply side reforms to speed up the system and some demand side to help first time buyers get back into the housing market, as outlined the noises off this week don’t auger well for that.

As we wait with bated breath, I hope that the prolonged budget speculation over the last few months has involved careful message management, with some of the harsher forecasts either overstated or used as distractions.

That way we may yet hope for a budget for our country that allows us to become a place where investors know they can deliver real growth and bolster our economy.