This is the second half of SoapBox Ep.15, and the news docket. Matt Pitcher and Abraham Okusanya are joined again by Clémence Chatelin, Chartered Financial Planner at Ovation Finance in Bristol, to ask who pays when capital and wealth leave Britain. The panel looks at why the London Stock Exchange keeps shrinking, whether we should feel sorry for the billionaires heading overseas, and what to expect from a Budget that almost nothing has leaked about. If you missed Part 1, on Gen Z, ESG and the return of Help to Buy, you can watch it at the bottom of this page.
The LSE Shrinks
Matt kicks off with the London Stock Exchange, where UK-listed companies keep being bought up and taken private while new listings have all but dried up, and some British businesses choose to list in the U.S. instead. Abraham thinks this matters well beyond the market itself. It is bad for entrepreneurs who dream of one day taking a company public, bad for investors whose UK opportunity set keeps narrowing, and bad for a country that wants its capital working at home.
Clem looks at how it happened. Unlike pension systems in some other countries, UK pensions were never required to back their home market, so its share was allowed to whittle away. Meanwhile, lighter rules on the other side of the Atlantic hand some companies a golden ticket. Her fix starts with making the UK an attractive place for UK pension money to invest.
"I don't like this. I don't like the optics of this."
Billionaires Leave
Abraham put this one on the docket, and Matt opens it with tongue firmly in cheek: it's time to feel sorry for the billionaires. Matt is selective about which departures bother him. He is not convinced the non-doms were contributing much in the first place, but he would rather the UK had found a way to collect tax from entrepreneurs who leave before selling their businesses.
"I don't feel bad for them. I feel bad for me as a taxpayer."
Clem asks whether anyone really leaves when their homes, shares and companies stay in the UK, why Britain never legislated for an exit tax, and what happened to the sense of duty that once came with great wealth. Abraham pushes back hard. Much of that wealth is tied up in businesses that employ people and create products we all use, and when the biggest taxpayers go, the burden falls on everyone else. The debate turns to patriotism, the difference between building wealth and already having it, and whose money tax really is.
"They never will know the feeling of having enough, because if they did know that feeling, they wouldn't be billionaires."
Budget Bingo
With a new Chancellor and very little leaked, the panel weighs up the rumours, from a tax on the banks to the latest on capital gains tax. Clem wants to see the government fix the small things first, so people believe it can fix the big ones. Abraham asks whether, after rises to capital gains tax and inheritance tax, the UK is running out of people to tax. And Matt saves his fire for the triple lock and for politics that always promises action after the next election.
"You've got a massive majority, just do it now."
Catch Up on Part 1
Part 1 asks who pays for a less stable future. Clem challenges how planners model the years ahead, the panel asks why younger investors are turning to crypto and prediction markets, Abraham explains why he never believed ESG would beat the market, and Clem shares what Help to Buy really cost her as the government brings it back.