James Ashton, outgoing chief executive of the Quoted Companies Alliance (QCA), has called on UK pension funds and policymakers to prioritize domestic investment in Britain’s small and medium-sized listed companies to support national economic resilience and long-term growth. Speaking ahead of the autumn Budget, Ashton urged Chancellor John Healey and Mayor Andy Burnham to address the ongoing decline in the number of companies listed on the London stock market and to reconsider the allocation of pension assets, which he says disproportionately flow into overseas investments.
Ashton, who leads the QCA, an organisation representing smaller UK publicly traded companies, highlighted a troubling trend of British firms being acquired by foreign and private equity buyers at undervalued prices. Recent takeovers include well-known names such as easyJet, Intertek, DCC, Tate & Lyle sweeteners, Mitie, and Teesside-based pawnbroker Ramsdens. He criticised this pattern, arguing that it results in the loss of British jobs, intellectual property, and tax revenues to foreign owners, often located far from the companies' domestic operational bases.
“The critical question is why a company like Ramsdens, rooted in Middlesbrough, should be better run from Fort Worth, Texas,” Ashton said. He emphasised that sustained reductions in the number of companies trading shares in London—now at 45 consecutive months of decline—reflect a broader undervaluation of UK firms and a lack of confidence in investing domestically.
A former journalist, Ashton advocates for reforms that would tie pension tax relief to domestic investment, contending that other countries successfully incentivize pension funds to support their own economies while Britain offers generous tax benefits with no such conditions. He acknowledged pension trustees’ focus on global returns but argued this narrow outlook overlooks broader national interests such as infrastructure, education, and employment opportunities for future generations.
Ashton appealed to Chancellor Healey’s background, highlighting his previous role as defence minister and connection to national security investments, suggesting that economic resilience similarly requires fostering homegrown companies. He called for more supportive government policies in the upcoming Budget to encourage pension funds and investors to “bring that pension money back home” and to promote growth across all regions of Britain.
In addition to urging greater domestic investment, Ashton has campaigned for reducing regulatory burdens on smaller listed companies, including calls to abolish stamp duty on share trading, reform audit and governance rules, and simplify annual reporting requirements that have ballooned to nearly 100,000 words on average. He believes such measures are necessary to make the UK’s capital markets more attractive to smaller businesses.
Pointing to the semiconductor company ARM as a model case, Ashton noted that while ARM was taken over by Japan’s SoftBank in 2016 and subsequently delisted from London, it retained a substantial operational presence in Cambridge. ARM’s market capitalisation currently stands around £191 billion, which would place it among the top companies on the FTSE 100 if listed domestically.
Beyond his QCA role, Ashton serves as an independent director at the Finsbury Growth & Income Trust and is involved in charity work focused on literacy, inspired by personal tragedy. He emphasises the importance of supporting British companies not only for financial returns but also for broader social and economic benefits, advocating a stronger sense of national pride and investment in the country’s future.