Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to help increase (a) investment and (b) listings for small and medium-sized businesses.

The Government is committed to reinvigorating our capital markets to ensure they deliver for investors and firms to support global and UK growth.

The UK is Europe’s leading hub for investment, and the Government is taking forward reforms to build on these strong foundations by boosting the competitiveness of UK markets and optimising the capital raising process for large and small companies.

This includes a once in a generation reform to our listings rulebook which will revolutionise our markets, directly align us with leading international counterparts and providing greater flexibility to firms and founders raising capital on UK markets.

The Chancellor has also announced a landmark review into pension fund investments which will explicitly consider the role of pension funds in capital and financial markets to boost returns and UK growth.