Why doesn’t the govt incentivise large corporations to encourage economic activity?

[LadyGillingham]

India started with this about 20yrs ago. Microsoft, Google etc built massive offices and hired tens of thousands of people. Lots of Restaurants and other businesses came up to support this workforce. Over time, many other companies started moving their workforce there. Absolutely booming! They now have world class infrastructure and the economic activity absolutely thriving!! Needless to say, all these employees and businesses pay shit loads of tax !!

London is already a financial capital. Well connected by trains, tubes etc. Why doesn’t our govt incentivise businesses to set up shops here?

By taxing businesses, we are shooting ourselves in the foot!

no, I’m not rich. I know several ppl who are struggling to find jobs. Those with jobs are relatively low paid. I work for a large multi National corporation. My Indian counterparts are paid in USD and earn much more than me (adjusted for ppp)

Plenty of large businesses do operate here. Businesses should be paying people properly and paying their taxes, otherwise the only benefit is to their owners. Businesses need good public services so that businesses have educated and healthy people to work in them.

Small businesses employ a large proportion of the workforce- they should be incentivised, IMO. Massive companies can help themselves, they are more powerful than governments and states which is a huge problem for the world.

Large businesses are simply going to places that incentivise them for creating jobs and that economic ecosystem.
Incentives lured them to build massive offices and they started hiring people for super cheap local rates, eventually over time salaries went up as companies were competing for workforce!

Indian average wages are still way below even our minimum wage.

there is also a huge disparity in India between the richest and poorest members of society much more than here, not sure that’s something we should be aspiring to

India achieved what they did because wages & cost of living were fraction of western equivalents at the time. India still has a very divided population with millions living in abject poverty.

Our government do try to suppress wages to make uk a more attractive place to live. The benefit system is a huge part of this, it allows companies to keep jobs here by paying less than the cost of living here.

WFH had killed your idea.

Ho large offices to staff, no support services required, no staff, no cafes, no cafes, no deliveries, no deliveries . . .

Business exists to line the pockets of shareholders, not to support communities.

As long as we keep shopping online, using Deliveroo, working from home and isolating ourselves from others, the economy will continue to degrade.

1. They do.
2. Brexit and associated issues. There's a reason Ireland has gone down this route.
3. Saying 'why can't country X be just like country Y' ignores a lot of complex factors. It's a bit more complicated than that.

You think it’s a good idea to put a cap on economic activity so the rich poor disparity stays small?
Lives of the poor in India have drastically improved in recent times. (Relative to what it was like before the economic boom)

The wage bill between here and India / China / anywhere more recently industiralied will be significantly cheaper....along with fewer regulation in relation to workers rights such as sick pay, holiday pay, occupational health etc rather than generally exploiting your workers. In addition, there will be more environmental constraints e.g. not tipping toxic waste into rivers but having to pay for its safe (more expensive) disposal. Its not just about taxes it's everything to do with the costs of running a business. We want our products and services as cheap as possible and companies respond by trying to provide them as cheap as possible. Why do you think all our traditional industries were outsourced in the first place?

Have you seen this government stuffed full of unemployables and ex charity workers. The last one wasn’t much better, or the one before that.

These people have never had real jobs or understand how generating profit or wealth works. They are basically of the lowest intellect and employability. The private sector wouldn’t touch these people with a barge pole. That’s why they don’t know how to incentivize business investment more. And that why Rachel from accounts (accused of fiddling her expenses in her previous job) had crashed the economy.

We don't need to build any more offices. There is a whole business park next to where I live thats turned into a ghost town. Literally dozens upon dozens of huge spaces, completely empty.
Companies don't want to pay the rents when they can just have people work from home costing them nothing. I would imagine buildings, and staff, are somewhat cheaper in India.
What we actually need where I live is housing, there is none. Theses spaces should be turned into homes.

Don’t be surprised about this. People here are typical braindead socialists. Equality, even if everyone’s equally poor.

I agree with you OP and Covid meant that plans for large scale deregulation after Brexit were not only shelved but reversed.

I would love to see more incentives for businesses of all sizes in this country. We have the talent and the capital here but much of it is now headed overseas.

Free trade deals between states tend to include terms that prevent countries from countries from offering incentives like you describe.

For example the World Trade Organisation’s model convention includes terms that prevent subsidies and inducements being offered. Fair competition is what is needed.

Ireland induced Apple through its tax system and got its fingers burned. India is not a good example to follow.

I’ve not said about putting a cap on economic activity at all but likewise I don’t want to see the government have to subsidise businesses to come here to such an extent that we gain nothing. As others have pointed out we aren’t on a level playing field to India, our wages costs are far in excess, even if we incentivised businesses to come here wages in India will always be cheaper for the foreseeable.

No one wants to turn those spaces into homes though as it isn’t profitable. Where I live thousands of homes are being built on green field sites with a few token affordable homes thrown in

Yep it’s a bad idea to put a tax on work. It’s halved growth so far. Not sure this gov have realised.

Because it's cheaper to employ people in developing countries. You can get two or three people in India compared to the one person in the UK. Then there's also the corporation tax, and now increased NI contributions which will be cheaper offshore or non existant. And less human rights/HR issues than in the UK.

Makes sense from a business perspective to send the work abroad.

They did this in Ireland, they have literally build the country around pharmaceutical industry and tech, and not just by incentivising the companies but by ploughing money and education into the people also. We are a highly skilled and educated workforce because of this. This has been a long time in the making.

I am in a small Irish city. So not Dublin cork limerick etc and we have 5 global pharmaceutical companies and several other smaller ones. And then a multitude of companies that serve those companies. Lots of work in the industry here.

Businesses aren't charities. They aren't aimed at the public good. They are aimed at benefiting their shareholders. They aren't usually required to benefit anyone else.

Ultimately though many pension funds own shares, businesses pay tax and businesses employ people so there is a public good.

What's Trump going to do about the actual reason Ireland attracted these businesses which is the very low corporation tax. Big Orange won't like that!

Large businesses making everyone else richer there's only one person getting rich from large business 😂😂

Stagnated wages are not going to attract people back into the office space.

I am looking for another job at the moment and all of them are offering well below market rate to make it even worth it WFH!! Nevermind trudging into an office spending money on train, coffee, lunch, snacks, another coffee etc.

Pay more and people might spend more. Make it actually worth my while to come into the office outside of business needs.

I think that will be sorted out once unemployment starts rising due to employers NI/workers rights changes unfortunately. And increased competition if the Government's aim in getting people off PIP has an effect and obviously increased immigration..Rachel Reeves also wants to lay off thousands of civil servants. It's a bad time to be picky about wages as someone else will jump to take your place. It's pants.

It’s about more than tax. Ireland is HQ or European hub to over 1,000 companies.
8 of top ten pharma and gaming and 9/10 ICT. Google, HP, Apple, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pfizer, GSK and IBM. Due to tax, tax treaties with other countries, regulatory environment (including intellectual property) but also ranks seven points higher than UK for percentage of population educated to degree level. Degrees are highly valued for US companies in particular. It’s English speaking, high quality of life and access to the Eurozone.