Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt will host some of the UK’s most prominent industry leaders as part of a drive to drum up fresh investment to revive the UK’s struggling economy.
The prime minister, who is expected to attend remotely, and the chancellor will address 42 bosses from commerce and industry who sit on the UK Investment Council – with a focus on creating jobs in hi-tech sectors. Council members include executives from Airbus, HSBC, Nestlé, Nissan and Hutchison Whampoa, which owns the 3 UK mobile telephone networks. The head of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the outgoing Legal & General CEO Sir Nigel Wilson and Liv Garfield, the Severn Trent CEO are also expected to attend.
The government said the event would build on the success of the inaugural Global Investment Summit in October 2021, which brought together more than 170 chief executives “to showcase the UK’s commitment to green investment ahead of Cop26”. Ministers said £9.7 bn of new foreign investment was pledged on the day, “creating over 30,000 new jobs and supporting growth in vital sectors such as wind and hydrogen energy, sustainable homes, and carbon capture and storage”.
Lord Johnson, the investment minister, is expected to make a plea for firms to make the most of the UK’s low business taxes and high-skilled workforce. Johnson, the former business partner of Jacob Rees-Mogg at his £7bn Somerset Capital Management investment fund, was sacked from his job as investment minister by Sunak when he took over from Liz Truss in November, only to be reinstated 44 days later.
Business investment fell in the year to October 2022 to leave the level spending on new equipment, machinery and IT systems 8% below its pre-pandemic level, according to the Bank of England and it is expected to fall again by 5.6% in 2023, the central bank said in its latest economic outlook.