Information obtained by News reveals that officials are formulating plans to merge the Office for Investment, a joint venture between Number 10 and the Department for Business and Trade, with other Whitehall departments to establish a more powerful cross-government investment agency.
It is anticipated that the suggestions will result in an announcement sometime around Monday of next week, when the International Investment Summit is held in London.
It was unclear if the Office for Investment would serve as the formal foundation for a new organization, but one official claimed that the plan that was recently discussed looked like it.
Raising the agency’s profile to address long-standing critiques of Britain’s inward investment efforts, it will be unveiled just two weeks before chancellor Rachel Reeves releases her first budget.
Her decisions on October 30 regarding personal and company taxes will be keenly observed to determine whether or not they are consistent with the pro-investment, pro-enterprise statements that ministers will be making at the investment summit in nine days.
