Simon Walker, the chief executive of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, has criticised the UK Government’s 2009 Budget, in particular a proposal for a $750 million Strategic Investment Fund.
Walker said that the BVCA is “deeply disappointed” by the decision to create what it sees as a vague Strategic Investment Fund. He said, “It looks like a return to the public sector seeking to “pick winners” (but ultimately subsidise losers), rather than the highly targeted UK Innovation Fund for venture capital in which the private sector would have played a pivotal role. This is, in short, not a Budget for recovery but a Budget which makes the burden for British business even heavier.”
The chief executive of the BVCA chastised the Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, the British Cabinet minister responsible for all economic matters.
“The Chancellor claimed that his Budget would focus on ‘investing in the future’ and ‘playing to this country’s strengths’,” says Darling.
Walker also criticised the Government’s plans to raise income tax to 50% for those earning 150,000 or more a year, seeing it as a turnoff for private equity investors.
“The income tax increases which he has announced effectively end Britain’s competitiveness in taxation and will discourage investors from being located and doing business here,” says Darling.
D.C.