Rachel Reeves will host the bosses of top US and UK financial firms in Downing Street on Tuesday morning, as Donald Trump begins his official state visit.
The meeting, which will be jointly hosted by US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, will be attended by senior figures from BlackRock, Barclays and Blackstone, who will have roundtable talks with officials hoping to highlight economic cooperation between the two countries.
Trump’s two-day visit will include a series of business events, including a state banquet with tech bosses and senior cabinet ministers on Wednesday evening. Trump will later travel to Chequers on Thursday for a business reception, working lunch and press conference with Keir Starmer.
Meanwhile, ministers will be hoping that Tuesday’s roundtable with financial bosses from the City and Wall Street will secure further foreign investments that can generate growth and positive headlines before a challenging budget in November.
That is expected to include a £100bn investment from Blackstone, the alternative asset manager known for its private equity investments and which manages about $1.2tn (£880bn) worth of assets. It is due to confirm the investment out of the $500bn it is due to invest in Europe over the next decade.
Sky News, which broke news of Blackstone’s investment on Monday morning, said the funds would involve private equity buyouts as well as other forms of investment.
Blackstone, which is led by Steve Schwarzman, is marking 25 years in London this year, having launched operations in the City in 2000. The office currently employs 650 people, and has about $100bn already invested in the UK. That includes real estate investments, including a datacentre in the north of England. Schwarzman told Bloomberg in June that “the UK government has been really helpful, really focused to make that happen”.
Blackstone’s investment pledge will be welcome news, helping to offset challenging decisions in the upcoming autumn budget. Rumours are swirling that the chancellor is considering a number of potential tax increases – including on banks, property and landlords’ rental income – in an effort to plug a shortfall of up to £40bn in the public finances.
The government has launched a fresh charm offensive to try to keep businesses onside, and Reeves last week pledged to shut down more regulators across the UK to encourage growth.
Reeves – who in July claimed regulators were a “boot on the neck” of business – told private equity bosses that there was “still more to do”, having already sacked the chair of the competitions watchdog, shut down the payments regulator and “severely” constrained the Financial Ombudsman Service.
“I want to take out more regulators; there’s still too many,” Reeves told investment firms at the British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association summit in London.
The Treasury declined to comment.
