Government must ‘level up’ foreign investment across Britain, urges select committee

An influential commons select committee has criticised the government for failing to map out its plan for spreading foreign investment more evenly across the UK to achieve its “levelling up agenda”.

The International Trade Committee (ITC) slammed the government in a report published today for promoting foreign investment’s role in boosting economic prosperity in forgotten regions of Britain despite providing little detail on why it would help achieve levelling up goals.

Angus Brendan MacNeil MP, chair of the ITC, said: “If the government is serious about its levelling-up agenda, it needs to show it has a plan to maximise the benefits of inward investment in all parts of the UK.”

The criticism comes as concerns about foregin companies hoovering up UK businesses are mounting.

Morrisons, the UK’s fourth largest supermarket, is currently the subject of a bidding war between two US private equity firms. Analysts are worried a buyout could lead to the supermarket’s assets being stripped and sold off.

The report found foreign investment is highly concentrated in the south east and London. Improving data on foreign investment would allow policymakers to track progress and implement rules quicker, the ITC said.

“Inward foreign direct investment can benefit local economies, generating new jobs and bringing new skills,” MacNeil added.

“However, far from helping to ‘level up’ across the UK, current patterns of foreign direct investment overwhelmingly benefit London and the South East.”

A DIT spokesperson said: “The UK is one of the best investment destinations in the world and we are delivering jobs and investment into all parts of the UK through our new Office for Investment, the Investment Council and Trade and Investment Hubs.”

“We welcome the International Trade Committee’s report and will publish our response in due course.”