Ahead of the Spring Budget next month, UK Finance has called for the publication of a tax roadmap for financial services.

The trade association, which currently represents over 300 financial services firms in the UK, this week made public a set of recommendations it submitted to the government to include in the chancellor's Budget.

It said that the financial services sector has a “critical role” to play in driving economic growth and investment, adding that its measures could help the UK achieve continued prosperity.

Alongside the tax roadmap, it urged the chancellor to issue a digital gilt – a digitalised version of fixed-interest loan securities issued by the government – to accelerate the digital transformation of the UK's market.

The organisation urged the government to focus on encouraging business and retail investment by launching a campaign to boost public interest in capital markets and reducing or removing the 0.5 per cent share purchase stamp duty.

It also recommended that the Recovery Loan Scheme should be replaced with a new Growth Loan Scheme to help support UK businesses.

Additionally, UK Finance said that the UK could forge a pathway to net zero by 2050 by issuing sector by sector net zero investment roadmaps to set out policy, spending and regulatory interventions.

It added that creating a government advisory service could help provide homeowners with free, independent retrofitting advice and provide certainty for firms involved in retrofitting.

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