Barclays chief urges ministers to curb public sector pay and resist bank tax hikes

"We need to curb expenditure at the government level. We need to find a way to curb wage inflation."

"UK banks are taxed more than banks anywhere else. How much more are you going to squeeze this?"

"the path to growth does not lie in taxing the sector even more"

Curbing government expenditure and tackling wage-driven inflation should be priorities ahead of the November budget. Public sector pay is running at an annual rate of 5.7 per cent, compared with 4.8 per cent in the private sector. UK banks faced an effective total tax rate of 46 per cent last year, compared with 28 per cent in New York and up to 39 per cent in the EU. Barclays paid £1.4 billion in tax in 2023 on pre-tax profits of £5.7 billion. Concerns about a windfall levy after higher bank profits caused UK bank shares to fall by more than £6 billion. Further taxation on banks is framed as a risk to London's global financial centre and to growth objectives.

Read at Business Matters