A tale of three cities

Chris Cummings, CEO, TheCityUK

I am just back from two days visiting Edinburgh and Glasgow with the Lord Mayor of the City of London. In addition to the civic duties which are the hallmark of these tours, the majority of the time was spent talking to senior individuals in the financial and professional services sector north of the border.

It is often repeated that 70% of jobs in financial services are outside London. It is easy to characterise these as lower-value 'back office' jobs but this visit showed just how wrong that impression is. Edinburgh has a great deal to be proud of in its asset management and life assurance professions. Glasgow has equally impressive credentials. The latest in series of infographics shows just how important and widespread these jobs are.

Of great concern to everyone we met was the need to have a competitive tax environment. While everyone understands it would be unrealistic to expect rates as low as Dubai – they would nonetheless like to see a government commitment to internationally competitive rates for corporation and personal tax.

Regulation continues to be a major focus of attention, with people keen to see the UK take more of a leadership role in responding to, and indeed, setting the regulatory agenda. There was concern that the FSA may be distracted because of the regulatory restructuring.

The third area of discussion was around skills: how can we ensure that schools, universities, government and the sector can work together to ensure we maintain a deep pool of talent in the UK. This is of benefit to domestic employers as well as international firms looking to base their operations in this country.

Underpinning these discussions was a desire to see the industry rebuild its reputation. There was a clear consensus that the sector must respond to the public's lack of faith in financial services.

All of these issues are central to the work of TheCityUK and we have three core objectives designed to address them directly:

• working to restore trust and confidence in the sector
• championing the competitiveness of the sector - focusing on trust, tax, regulation, skills, immigration and trade policy
• promoting the best of financial and professional services around the world. 

Given the recent Scottish elections, and the SNP's success in winning an overall majority, there was a great deal of discussion about what this means for the sector and how the public across the country would respond. Having met Alex Salmond and other politicians during the visit, it is clear that there is still much debate and discussion to be had before a clearer position on independence emerges.

It was clear that the sector is strong and has success stories to be proud of in Scotland. Newer players like Virgin and Tesco complement those who have been longer established such as Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management. All made the delegation welcome and had very positive messages that we will promote around the world.

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