Chancellor warned of taxation concerns

News Article - 14 March 2007
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The chancellor Gordon Brown has faced a flurry of warnings that UK businesses will leave the country in their droves unless taxes are cut.

Accountancy firm Grant Thornton, along with the Forum of Private Business (FPB), has said that the UK will lose its attractiveness as a place to invest, causing the economy to suffer.

The audit company has compiled a list of factors which would help increase the UK's appeal as an investment centre, including reducing the rate of corporation tax, streamlining regulations and simplifying legislation on tax.

According to the FPB, companies are currently being made to suffer through the tax burden.

"The government must deliver on promises to cut regulatory and administrative burdens, reduce tax burdens, open up government contracts to smaller businesses and work harder to understand the needs of smaller companies in areas such as education," the organisation's manager, Victoria Carson, said.

Earlier this month, the Confederation of British Industry and accountancy firm Ernst & Young published papers highlighting the country's increasing unattractiveness as an investment centre, calling upon the government to act.

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