London First response to pre-Budget report

9 December 2009

Baroness Jo Valentine, Chief Executive of influential business group London First, welcomed the continued commitment to vital infrastructure investment – including building Crossrail and upgrading Thameslink. But Valentine was less than content with the Chancellor's controversial measure to impose a tax on banks who pay bonuses to UK-based staff. She said:

"Bank profits – even at those banks not in receipt of direct state aid – have benefited greatly from a business environment made artificially benign by Government's financial support for the sector. So there is an argument for some sort of contribution from the banks which goes some way to repaying this support.

But an ad hoc bonus-bashing tax, designed to satiate a public desire for revenge, is not the right way forward for banks, their customers or the wider economy. There will almost certainly be unforeseen, unintended and unhelpful consequences arising from this politically motivated measure."

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