For George Osborne, who declared that his Budget “unashamedly backs business”, GlaxoSmithKline’s announcement of a new biopharmaceutical factory in Cumbria [its first manufacturing facility in the UK for 40 years] couldn’t have come at a better time. In his interviews this morning, the Chancellor didn’t miss an opportunity to take credit for the decision:
You have GlaxoSmithKline, one of the world’s biggest companies, one of the great British success stories, saying the budget has changed their view of Britain as a place to invest.
They’re going to create 1,000 jobs here. Now, surely my responsibility as the country’s chancellor is to get the economy moving, to get jobs created, and when big companies say that about Britain, people should sit up and notice that we are changing the British economy for the better.
It is rather misleading, however, for Osborne to claim it as an overnight success. The main reason for GSK’s move is the introduction of a “patent box” [which introduces a lower rate of corporation tax on profits generated from UK-owned intellectual property], a measure previously announced by Alistair Darling in the 2009 pre-Budget report. As Labour has highlighted this morning, yesterday’s Budget document even admitted as much [see Table 2.2, p.53].
In his statement, GSK chief executive Andrew Witty made it clear that the patent box was the ultimate pull factor:
The introduction of the patent box has transformed the way in which we view the UK as a location for new investments, ensuring that the medicines of the future will not only be discovered, but can also continue to be made here in Britain. Consequently, we can confirm that we will build GSK’s first new UK factory for almost 40 years and that we will make other substantial capital investments in our British manufacturing base.
In fairness to Osborne, however, Witty also cited further cuts to the general rate of corporation tax, which will fall to 24 per cent next month, having stood at 28 per cent when the coalition took office. Of interest, then, is the timing of GSK’s announcement. The company’s press office has confirmed to me that the decision was taken several days in advance of the Budget. To some, the conveniently timed announcement by Witty [who was knighted in 2012] has a whiff of corporatism about it.
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