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Is Keir Starmer leading the UK into recession? | Week in Business
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Mar 21, 2025
Week in Business sees City AM's Editor-in-Chief Christian May break down the top stories of the week in the UK. This week's top stories include Prime Minister Keir Starmer's article in City AM on his vows to cut regulations and London edging closer to New York as the world’s top financial centre – plus more. Read Starmer's article here 👇 https://www.cityam.com/my-government-will-cut-the-cost-of-regulation-by-a-quarter/ Get more of City AM 👇 🌐 http://www.cityam.com X(formerly Twitter): http://twitter.com/CityAM Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cityam Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/city_am LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/cityam Produced by: Christian May, Emmanuel Nwosu, Joe Lee #news #politics #business #economy #businessnews #politicalnews #businessgrowth #uknews #ukbusiness #ukpolitics #ukeconomy #keirstarmer #rachelreeves #recession #tax #london #newyork #finance #financialnews
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0:00
the prime minister in his own words in
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city am vowing to unleash the animal
0:04
spirits of the private sector there he
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is look it was intoxicating stuff but
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does it Stack Up welcome to the week in
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business with me Christian
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may now it's no secret that the
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government is on a push for economic
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growth and it's no secret that it isn't
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going very well quick recap on how we
0:24
got here labor assumed that they would
0:26
benefit from a stability dividend a
0:28
competence dividend that the moment they
0:30
took office the expectation was that
0:32
their sensible Centrist leadership would
0:34
be recognized and welcomed by businesses
0:36
employers and investors and that the
0:38
chaos of the dying days of the Tory
0:40
regime would be replaced by optimism and
0:42
confidence now this was always an
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ambitious expectation made less likely
0:47
to work by the fact that ministers spent
0:49
the entire Summer and Autumn talking
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about how terrible things were and how
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unpleasant their first budget was going
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to have to be do you remember all that
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it was misery on toast served up day
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after day and they very nearly tored the
1:01
economy into a recession as businesses
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held off hiring and investing and then
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came the budget with tens of billions of
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pounds heaped onto businesses in extra
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taxes and higher costs sweeping pay
1:13
Rises were granted to the public sector
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funded by the private sector with a
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mountain of additional burdens uh
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promised courtesy of the Monumental
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employment Rights bill business
1:24
confidence tanked consumer confidence
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followed suit and across the country
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firms prepared to cancel their hiring
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plans freeze investment increase their
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costs and generally hunker down and by
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January of this year 6 months into
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office the government realized that
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something needed to change not least
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their tone the chancellor gave her big
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growth speech at the end of that month
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and she could have been talking about a
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different country gone was the Doom and
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Gloom of the previous months replaced
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with a Rous grin and endless platitudes
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about growth entrepreneurs dynamism and
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economic ambition there was also to be
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fair and as I have said before a lot of
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good policy announcements at the start
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of the year in areas such as planning
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reform house building and infrastructure
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investment the next big progrowth push
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came from the prime minister in a word
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deregulation now if the Prime Minister
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discovers it's too difficult to get
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anything done that even the might of
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Downing Street comes up against a chorus
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so if it can't be done then what hope
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have the rest of us got starm has vowed
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to slash red tape and demolish the
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blockers and the bureaucrats not for the
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first time I found myself thinking that
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if he'd pumped this out on the campaign
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Trail I might have voted for him and
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this brings us to the prime minister's
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article in cityam this week it was well
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written it was well argued it was full
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of ambition on how to unleash businesses
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and support the wealth creators of this
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country and we gave it a good show and
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we were pleased to run it the PM wanted
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to speak directly to City am's readers
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and to make his argument happy to help
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but there's something not quite right
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here in his article starma heaps Praise
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on entrepreneurs who work day and night
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to build a business from scratch and the
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family companies that have passed knoow
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across the generation
3:00
well those entrepreneurs are currently
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braced for a spike in the cost of
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employing people in their fledgling
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businesses while the family firms that
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starma celebrates have been knocked for
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six by potentially ruinous changes to
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the inheritance tax system now the PM
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writes that economic growth is the
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number one mission of this government
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but the evidence suggests this Zeal is
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more of a panicked afterthought than a
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foundational purpose on the day that the
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PM's article ran in city am the
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resolution Foundation a think tank with
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close links to Downing Street warned
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that the UK was entering recession
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territory as firms adapt to a wave of
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costs and tax increases coming into
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effect next month alongside the
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imposition of new employment legislation
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that makes a mockery of starmer's claim
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to be slashing regulations that hold
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businesses back the government's
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deregulation agenda is welcome but it
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only feels radical because it's a labor
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government doing it it isn't actually
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that radical at all it should have
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happened years ago and we can slam the
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Tories for not lifting a finger in this
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area but we shouldn't confuse this
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government's regulatory housekeeping
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with a big bang style Revolution because
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it isn't and the areas where labor has
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been bold or Reckless depending on your
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view on business taxes on wage costs on
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employment law are without doubt now
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holding back economic growth fueling
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inflation and undermining confidence and
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it will take more than a Punchy oped in
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our newspaper to write those wrongs and
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with the sun beating down on us here in
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the square mile my optimistic end note
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this week is the news that London has
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edged closer to becoming the world's top
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Financial Center the the 37th edition of
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the Global Financial Centers index
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showed London retains its number two
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Global ranking and is closing the gap on
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New York now the Big Apple tops the
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rankings overall it has done for years
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and I suspect it always will London
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can't compete with the depth of its
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capital markets but it can compete in
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other areas indeed we're listed as
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number one for Banking and we're
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climbing High when it comes to fintech
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those are our strengths and we should
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play to them now I have one final
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optimistic note to share which is as I
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hope you've seen the the finalists in
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The C Awards have been revealed you can
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find them uh in print you can find them
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listed online a phenomenal bunch of
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entrepreneurs businesses large and small
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going to be an incredible celebration at
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the Guild Hall on the 6th of May and I
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would urge you to go to cityam events.
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co.uk to find out more about those
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finalists and to book some tickets to
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join us on the night that is it from me
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this week stay up to date and in the
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know with the cityam app and on City
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enjoy the weekend and I'll see you next
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week
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