In a Treasury Committee meeting yesterday, Jon Richardson, head of tax policy at PwC stated that Chancellor Rishi Sunak needed to create a tax regime that provides clarity in order to enhance business investment with a bigger focus on research and development (R&D) going forward.

The Committee hearing discussed the competitiveness of the UK’s tax system and its relation to business investment and also featured Rhiannon Kinghall, head of tax policy at Macfarlanes LLP, Stuart Adam, senior research economist, Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), and professor Stephen Millard, deputy director for macroeconomic policy, National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR).

The panel agreed with Millard’s statement that ‘investment generally does lead to further growth’ and that the Treasury will need to either ‘cut taxes or increase reliefs’ to help boost business investment and that the current uncertainty about tax, with the Chancellor’s statement that he will reduce taxes before the end of parliament, is ‘not the most sensible thing to do’.

Richardson to