Financial Services: Mansion House Speech
Debate between Tulip Siddiq and Tom Hayes(1 week ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Tulip Siddiq
We are looking at a diverse portfolio of assets, and the pension funds mentioned by the right hon. Gentleman have already pooled and are investing in the UK.
Tom Hayes (Bournemouth East) (Lab)
Bournemouth is a wonderful place to represent for lots of reasons; one very good reason is the presence of a large finance sector. We have JP Morgan and Nationwide building society, which I was pleased to visit recently and hear from about its aspirations. Over the last 14 years, that sector on the south coast has been starved, so what steps will the Minister and this Government will take to support coastal finance hubs? Moreover, I recognise that her diary will be quite booked up, but can I invite her to come to Bournemouth and meet with representatives of those firms? If she does, I am happy to buy her an ice cream.
Tulip Siddiq
My hon. Friend will know that I can never resist an ice cream, so I probably will visit after all. Places such as JP Morgan, which employs 4,000 people in the financial services industry, are vital to us. One of the things that the Chancellor’s speech built on was the significant steps that the Government are already taking to enhance the competitiveness of our financial services sector. We want to look at the biggest changes to the UK’s listings regime in more than three decades and—my hon. Friend will be familiar with this—deliver the final stages of the post-crisis capital reforms to banks. With our financial services growth and competitiveness strategy, which I hope my hon. Friend will write to us on, we want to give the industry certainty and the confidence to invest. That is the main thing that the financial services sector wants right now, and people in Bournemouth will probably agree with that. I look forward to that ice cream.