Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt is reportedly backing plans for a significant overhaul of the UK ISA scheme, with changes designed to encourage individual savers to invest in the domestic market.
According to reports by the Financial Times, people familiar with the matter said UK Treasury officials have met with a series of investment industry executives to examine how to simplify the current array of ISA offerings and remove barriers to investing in the stock market itself.
Hunt is set to use the upcoming Autumn Statement in November to rollout the proposals, according to sources.
UK assets still carry Mini Budget risk premium
One of the ideas includes enabling cash savings and stock market investments to be held within a single ISA, as opposed to the current separate set up, in theory enabling an easier access for people in the UK indices.
Alongside this, The Times reported that the Chancellor has met with a series of US tech firms in a bid to replace the Nasdaq as the go-to tech home with London.
Hunt said London's stock exchange should be like the Nasdaq exchange in the US and become "Europe's place of choice" for technology firms looking to fundraise.
He added "there is work to do to make sure that the London Stock Exchange is the place of choice for up-and-coming British technology businesses to list".
The UK has suffered a series of heavy losses to the US, with several major FTSE-100 firms choosing to move its primary listings to the United States.
This morning (25 September) British biopharmaceuticals company Conduit Pharmaceuticals completed a deal to put its $1.2bn listing on the Nasdaq.
