The Lord Mayor of the City of London, Alastair King, will tonight (14 November) deliver a speech at the annual Financial and Professional Services Dinner held at The Mansion House to an audience of senior political figures and business leaders from the financial and professional services sectors.

The Lord Mayor will speak alongside the Chancellor of the Exchequer the Rt Hon Rachel Reeves MP and Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England.

The Lord Mayor of the City of London Corporation, Alastair King will say (please check against delivery):

On ISA reforms he will say:

“In the 10 years to April 2023, people have put £436bn into Cash ISAs but only £255bn into Stocks and Shares ISAs – even though Stocks and Shares ISAs have performed better.

“When the forerunner of ISAs was introduced, the deal was simple: in return for favourable tax treatment, investors put their money into UK equities.

“It’s time to look at that model once again – not mandating anything but saying that if you want your full tax break, you need to be investing in the UK – which would bring us into line with what our competitors do.

“Redirecting this money from non-productive to productive assets would help scale up British companies, improve returns for savers, and democratise the market by letting many more people participate.

“It would require a change in the rules, but not a charge to the Exchequer. And we could do it in short order.”

On risk culture he will say:

“We need to reform attitude to risk within regulators and rethink our mindset.

“We have globally respected regulators, doing the vital work now of responding creatively to the secondary objective for growth and international competitiveness – we all look forward to seeing the results, as we plan to mark the second anniversary of the secondary objective next year.

“To sustain the success of the UK's world-leading financial services sector, firms need to innovate and take responsible risks – and they must be allowed to do so. Without risk, there is no growth.

“Regulators will increasingly need to focus not just on preventing failure, but actively encouraging success.”

On pensions he will say:

“I will be working with key partners to ensure we achieve the full potential of the Mansion House Compact, launched by my predecessor Sir Nicholas Lyons 18 months ago.

“We need to develop additional mechanisms for the UK pensions industry to invest in both pre-IPO and IPO funds – re-energising our capital markets and combatting the current view among many European businesses that they need to turn to the US for funding.

“The City of London Corporation is an impartial and honest broker between industry and government. And we will leave no stone unturned in our quest to unlock investment and unleash growth – as partner, broker, and solution-finder.”