John Healey has been urged to ‘turbocharge’ the London stock market as it reels from a £180billion takeover frenzy.
In a report published ahead of the Budget, City broker Peel Hunt sounded the alarm over the ‘unprecedented pace’ of merger and acquisition (M&A) activity involving UK-listed firms.
Head of research Charles Hall pointed to 166 takeovers worth £180billion since the start of 2023 including £74billion of deals so far this year – many involving foreign buyers.
Among those to have been targeted this year are airline Easyjet, warehouse giant Segro, Lloyd’s of London insurer Beazley, finance house Schroders and ingredients maker Tate & Lyle.
However, there have been just 11 new listings worth £6billion through so-called initial public offerings (IPOs) since 2023.
At the same time, firms including Paddy Power owner Flutter and travel giant Tui have quit the London market for rival exchanges in New York and Europe.
The UK stock market has seen a wave of foreign takeovers
‘To say that the UK has a problem retaining its companies and listing new ones would be a massive understatement,’ said Hall.
‘The number and value of bids for UK companies is running at exceptionally high levels, raising concerns that the UK equity market is seeing a material depopulation.
‘There has been a dearth of IPOs thus far in 2026, albeit the pipeline is now looking more encouraging.’
He pointed to the recent £5.3billion listing of payments firm Airtel Money – dubbed ‘Africa’s Revolut’ – in the biggest IPO in London for five years.
Hall, a leading campaigner for reforms to bolster the UK stock market, called for more to be done including tax breaks on investing in British companies and for entrepreneurs listing firms in the UK.
‘The good news is that turbocharging UK equity markets is not difficult and can be done at pace,’ said Hall.
‘There are multiple levers that should deliver real results. Importantly, these should drive more tax revenue, accelerate economic growth, increase innovation and improve pensions and savings.’
He called for stamp duty on share trading to be axed, arguing it would ‘provide a strong economic return, as it would remove friction and enhance UK competitiveness’.
He added: ‘It makes no sense for a UK investor to have a higher transaction cost for buying shares in a UK company than a US business.’
Under the current rules, investors must pay 0.5 per cent tax when they buy London-listed stocks but there is no such levy when they buy overseas shares.
London Stock Exchange boss Julia Hoggett last week described it as ‘a pernicious tax’ that ‘undermines the growth of the UK economy’.
And she urged Healey to ‘take the handbrake off’ UK listings by axing the levy and bringing back tax breaks for domestic investing.
Hall said he was now ‘encouraged by the IPO pipeline, with a number of larger companies looking to list in the UK’.
He said he expects ‘increased activity at the back end of 2026 and into 2027’ in terms of new listings, but added: ‘The rate of M&A is still materially larger than the number of new companies.
‘In addition, we are concerned that many tech companies may choose to list in the US. We are currently on track to see more UK companies listing in the US this year than in the UK – that should be a statistic that makes everyone recognise the importance of fundamental change to increase domestic capital and encourage companies to list in the UK.’
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