Member Article

'Red tape and tax holding back UK globalisation' - CBI

Business is ‘the beating heart of a successful society’ and fundamental to meeting the challenges of globalisation, the CBI has warned. Companies are over-taxed and over-regulated at the expense of profit, investment, jobs and national prosperity because too few politicians and policy-makers recognise business’ fundamental role, claims new CBI Director-General Richard Lambert.

Mr Lambert said: “Business is the source of wealth on which almost everything else depends. In a world where capital can flow from high tax to low tax economies, the burden of heavy corporate tax is not just born by shareholders - a large proportion of whom represent pensioners anyway - but also by customers, suppliers and, particularly, by employees. High business taxes cost jobs and hold down wages.

“The world is on the brink of a ‘Third Industrial Revolution’ driven by the easy flow of information, over great distances and at low cost, which will vastly expand the scope of services that can be traded and delivered to people. But the UK must adapt to take advantage of it, which will require a step change in the quality and quantity of training available to the workforce with both business and government playing their part.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .