Britain ‘becoming incubator nation’ of firms that flee London

The UK is at risk of becoming an “incubator nation” which creates promising start-ups before losing them to rival markets, John Healey has been warned. The Chancellor has been told to take immediate action to revive the London stock market, as City leaders warned that the exodus of British start-ups is “not business as usual”. The Capital Markets Industry Taskforce (Cmit), which is helmed by LSE chief executive Dame Julia Hoggett, issued the alert to Healey in its pre-Budget submission to the Treasury. The document warns that the dearth of new listings in London is a “strategic growth problem” which poses a challenge to the UK economy as a whole, not just the stock exchange. “The UK is at a serious risk of becoming forever an incubator nation, exporting its greatest companies just at the point they become globally consequential,” the document, reported by the Sunday Times, is understood to say. Cmit has handed a set of demands to the Chancellor which it says would encou