UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves has described the City of London as entering a “new golden age,” crediting looser listing and tax rules for a revival in company fundraising. Independent analysts were more cautious about how much the reforms will change.
What the Chancellor said
In a speech at the London Stock Exchange, Reeves argued that changes to tax and regulation are making it easier for companies to raise money in the UK, and that the City is beginning to recover after a long stretch of weak listing activity. She pointed to two milestones: the FTSE 100 index rising above 10,000 points for the first time, and a recent run of initial public offerings in London.
According to reporting by the Financial Times, Reeves said that as global companies again choose London, the market is seeing “the first signs of a new golden age for the city.” The FTSE 100 passed 10,000 after gaining roughly 21.5% in 2025, its largest annual rise since 2009, and London’s IPO proceeds reached about £1.9 billion across 11 deals — the strongest year since 2021.
The reforms behind the claim
Reeves tied the optimism to specific policy changes: a relaxation of share and bond listing rules that took effect this week, and a three-year stamp duty holiday on the sale of shares in newly listed companies. Under reforms set out by the Financial Conduct Authority, already-listed companies can in most cases raise additional funds without publishing lengthy prospectuses, and the threshold for prospectus-free follow-on share sales was raised substantially. Smaller debt issuance was also made easier, widening access for retail investors.
The stated aim, in the Chancellor’s framing, is to cut paperwork and speed access to capital for entrepreneurs and investors while preserving the investor protections that underpin the UK’s reputation as a trusted market.
A more cautious view
Not all observers shared the enthusiasm. Neel Shah, a market strategist at the research group Edison, welcomed the lighter prospectus rules as a reduction in friction for companies raising capital, but cautioned that many other obstacles remain before the City can genuinely claim a golden age.
Investment platforms have meanwhile pressed the government to go further. Executives from firms including AJ Bell, Hargreaves Lansdown, RetailBook and Interactive Investor wrote to the Chancellor and the London Stock Exchange urging that retail investors be given allocations in every UK IPO, secondary fundraising and standard bond issue — a sign that the debate over who benefits from a City revival is far from settled.
Limitations and what to watch
The Chancellor’s “golden age” language is political framing rather than a settled economic assessment, and several claims rest on short-term market movements that can reverse. A single strong year of IPO proceeds does not by itself confirm a durable recovery, and index levels reflect global factors well beyond UK policy. The listing reforms are recent, so their effect on the volume and quality of new listings will only become clear over the coming years. Readers weighing the significance of the announcement should treat the headline figures as a snapshot rather than a trend, and note that this is a policy claim, not investment advice.
