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Roula Khalaf, editor of FT, chooses her favorite story in this weekly newsletter.
The writer is a temporary CEO of Competition and Market
The Government of the UK presented economic growth as its main priority and did so for good and healthy reasons. Without growth, there is no money to support the renewal of our vital public services and without prosperity for diligent people and families.
But what drives growth? And how can a regulator like CMA play a role? Well, we know that dynamic, competitive markets are running growth. But another thing we know for sure is that a business investment triggers growth and that we are struggling with business investments here in the UK.
Last year, the UK again delivered the lowest level of business investments in G7. That’s true too long. And this is where CMA-Jer comes in my experience, there are many factors in any investment decision, but great confidence in a stable, coherent and well-informed regulatory environment.
This is our northern star: a regulatory environment that promotes the highest possible level of business investments, in accordance with respect for the absolute importance of healthy competition and strong consumer protection. We want both domestic and international companies to see the UK as a great place to invest.
This means to provide start-up companies and supporters of self-confidence to start their business here, not elsewhere in the world. This means stimulating multinational companies – which have a rather free choice to place their investments anywhere in the EMEA time zone – to choose the UK. And that means giving our domestic companies encouragement and confidence to embark on and enter.
What does this mean in practice and what will CMA do differently? Well, here’s three simple – but strong – the things we want to drive forward.
First, efficiency: We need to make our investigations and processes as simple and faster as possible. We know that it costs companies when they have to deal with long and uncertain investigations. Good decisions, clear decisions, fast decisions – this is what you tell us that you need and it is up to us to deliver. We have already started with a big start to the “4PS” frame, announced by our executive director at the end of last year. Proportality, predictability, process and pace are all critical areas that we would dig and I am convinced that in the near future we can achieve real progress.
Second, expertise: CMA has a wealth of talent and dedicated labor. But we also know that companies can be frustrating when they think they have to spend their time educating us about dynamics and problems in the sector. And, of course, the deeper our understanding is, the better the decisions we make. So, we listened again. We will build mechanisms to ensure that we are investing and can access the expertise of the world class to enable a quick, meaningful and adult conversation with every sector we are exploring.
Finally, engagement. Ultimately, we serve consumers in the UK. But our work has a direct impact on companies in the UK and those who want to grow and invest here. So, it is important that we are directly and significantly engaged in the business community. Our dedication is an open door, open ears and open minds.
We are not naive and we will never move away from believing the strength of competition and consumer protection. But we want to hear what suits you – what will give you confidence to invest. We look forward to the first meeting of the CMA Council for growth and investment to do so. The Council was launched earlier this year and gathers the leaders of 12 major groups of business and investors in the UK.
We love the UK. Now is the time to work together to make a great place to invest and start productivity, growth and prosperity that we all want to see.
