{"text":[[{"start":11.12,"text":"Chancellor John Healey has dropped his strongest hint yet of higher taxes on banks, saying he had “decisions to take” in the Budget in relation to the financial services sector."}],[{"start":21.48,"text":"“My observations on the banks are just that people too often see them as big distant financial institutions, when they are hard-wired into the economic fabric,” Healey said in Bangkok during a trip for the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank."}],[{"start":36.28,"text":"He added: “That said, I’ve got decisions to take in the Budget, and I’ll set those out in two weeks’ time.”"}],[{"start":43.04,"text":"Shares in UK banks fell in early trading on Friday, with Lloyds Banking Group down 2 per cent, NatWest slipping 1.8 per cent and Barclays 0.4 per cent lower."}],[{"start":53.76,"text":"The Treasury declined to comment on a report in The Guardian saying that Healey is poised to impose higher levies on the banks."}],[{"start":60.88,"text":"Healey is seeking ways of keeping the UK’s budget deficit under control without breaching Labour’s election manifesto commitments not to raise income tax, value added tax or employee national insurance contributions."}],[{"start":73.64,"text":"One option for Healey is to reverse former Conservative chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s reduction in the surcharge that banks pay on corporation tax, from 8 per cent to 3 per cent."}],[{"start":83.88,"text":"The Trades Union Congress said that decision had cost the Treasury £6bn to date and called for Healey to raise the surcharge to 16 per cent."}],[{"start":92.68,"text":"However, one bank executive noted the surcharge had been cut in 2023, at a time when corporation tax had been increased from 19 per cent to 25 per cent."}],[{"start":102.84,"text":"Privately, some bankers have acknowledged that they are fighting an uphill battle against higher taxes on the sector, given another year of record profits."}],[{"start":110.56,"text":"“It’s tough to argue against it when we are all making so much money,” said one senior executive. “It’s just politically such an easy place to go take it from.”"}],[{"start":119.52,"text":"UK Finance, a trade body, has argued the banks in London already pay higher rates of tax than those in other financial centres such as New York and Frankfurt."}],[{"start":129.84,"text":"Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch joined investors this week in warning that higher bank taxes would hit UK growth and damage the financial services sector’s international competitiveness."}],[{"start":140.32,"text":"Badenoch’s shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith said: “Britain needs growth but a raid on the financial services sector will stifle it. Labour should be backing business and wealth creators, not making their lives harder.”"}],[{"start":153,"text":"Last week Healey met leaders of the UK’s biggest domestic lenders, including Lloyds, NatWest, Santander, HSBC and Nationwide, who warned that higher taxes on the sector would raise the cost of capital for British businesses, reduce lending and increase prices for mortgages and SMEs."}],[{"start":171.38,"text":"One executive likened choosing the least damaging tax to the banks to “being asked to pick from a menu when I don’t want to go into the restaurant”."}],[{"start":178.96,"text":"Additional reporting by Ortenca Aliaj and Laith Al-Khalaf"}],[{"start":187.13,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1792145525_7814.mp3"}