City AM is set to take its traditional two-week break from printing the newspaper, with digital operations — including the website, app, newsletters, and studios — continuing uninterrupted through the pause before presses resume in September.

In a final Editor's Letter before the break, City AM outlined ten policy proposals aimed at stimulating UK economic growth, drawn from ideas that emerged during a walk from Bank station to the publication's office on Lower Thames Street. The package arrives against a backdrop of persistently weak UK productivity growth since the 2008 financial crisis, a challenge the current Labour government has identified as a top priority, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Prime Minister Keir Starmer repeatedly framing growth as their core economic mission.

1. Scrap non-compete clauses

Eliminate non-compete clauses and permit no notice periods by mutual consent. The proposal argues this would inject dynamism into the professional services labour market. The previous Conservative government consulted on limiting non-competes but did not implement a full ban.

2. Unfreeze income tax thresholds

Raise income tax thresholds in line with inflation annually, ending the current freeze. The rationale is that taxpayers should not feel they are being unfairly penalised. The freeze, in place since 2022 and extended through 2028, produces so-called fiscal drag, pulling more workers into higher tax bands as wages rise with inflation.

3. Abolish stamp duty on shares

Economists broadly agree that removing stamp duty on shares represents one of the most pro-growth tax cuts available and would likely generate enough economic activity to pay for itself. The UK is unusual among major economies in levying a 0.5 per cent duty on share purchases, a charge critics argue disadvantages the London Stock Exchange relative to competitors in New York and Amsterdam.

4. Repeal the Employment Rights Act

The proposal calls for full repeal, arguing that Britain's employment landscape functioned adequately before the legislation and that the Act will constrain the labour market for years to come.

5. End Equal Pay claims through legislation

Introduce legislation to curtail Equal Pay claims, citing New Zealand as a jurisdiction that addressed the issue decisively.

6. Replace local planning committees with Zonal Development Rights

Abolish case-by-case scrutiny by local councils in favour of a zonal planning system, enabling faster and more efficient construction. Planning reform has been a recurring theme in UK growth debates, with successive governments of both parties struggling to overhaul a system widely blamed for holding back housebuilding and infrastructure projects.

7. Repeal "social value" procurement regulations

Remove all social value requirements from public procurement, leaving price and quality as the sole determining factors.

8. Place government impact assessments on a statutory footing

Require that when a regulatory body determines a policy will impose a net cost on the economy — as has been argued regarding much of the Employment Rights Act — the policy must be sent back for revision.

9. Create a light-touch regulatory framework for small firms

Introduce simplified employment law and tax codes for companies with fewer than 20 employees, giving small businesses room to expand. Small and medium-sized enterprises account for roughly 60 per cent of UK private-sector employment, making regulatory burdens on smaller firms a central concern for growth advocates.

10. Abolish the triple lock on the state pension

Maintain inflation-linked pension increases but remove the additional measures used to calculate the benefit. The letter notes that this approach is widely acknowledged in Westminster as sensible policy. The triple lock currently guarantees the state pension rises by the highest of inflation, average earnings growth, or 2.5 per cent, making it one of the largest single items of government expenditure growth.

City AM has dubbed the package its "Ten Point Plan for Growth."