UK business investment lowest in G7 despite corporation tax cuts, says IPPR
Business investment in the UK fell to the lowest rate in the G7 group of wealthy nations despite corporation tax cuts, the government has been warned, as ministers prepare £30bn of giveaways targeted at companies and higher-income workers.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said a “race to the bottom” on the headline tax rate on company profits had failed to boost investment and economic growth in Britain over the past 15 years.
Liz Truss, the prime minister, and her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, argue that lower rates of corporation tax could unleash an investment boom in Britain to help drive up economic growth towards a target rate of 2.5% a year. Kwarteng will confirm more detail around the tax cuts on Friday at a planned “fiscal event” or mini-budget.
However, the IPPR said slashing the headline rate from 30% in 2007 to 19% in 2019, orchestrated by the former chancellor, George Osborne, did not spur higher private investment or faster economic growth.
Despite the repeated tax cuts to the lowest rate in a century, the UK fell behind Italy and Canada to rank with the lowest private sector investment in the G7 as a share of national income.
The following year, the UK ranked 28th for business investment out of 31 members of a wider group of developed countries in the OECD.
Studies have shown corporation tax cuts used by successive Conservative governments have had little bearing on business investment and economic growth, undermining the argument of free-market Tories that such tax breaks pay for themselves.
Cuts to corporation tax came with a net cost to the exchequer of almost £73bn between 2010 and 2018, according to research by the Social Market Foundation. In only one year did an increase in business investment
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