South West Water has agreed to pay a £24m penalty for wastewater spillages, the water regulator said.
Some of Britain’s leading financial technology companies have urged the chancellor to incentivise them to list on London’s flagging stock market or risk seeing them turn to rival international exchanges.
Sky News has learnt that Rachel Reeves met executives from companies including Atom Bank, Clearbank, Revolut and Zilch on Wednesday morning to discuss the launch of the Treasury's financial services growth and competitiveness strategy.
Sources briefed on the meeting said the chancellor was pressed to consider allowing investors in newly listed companies to benefit from stamp duty holidays or capital gains tax cuts as a way of encouraging fast-growing businesses to float in the UK.
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One said that had "listened" to the suggestions from industry executives, but had not expressed an opinion on them.
The pleas came days after data was published showing the London Stock Exchange had had the worst start to a year by volume of funds raised through initial public offerings in at least three decades.
Ms Reeves plans to restrict the amount that can be saved in cash ISAs in an attempt to draw more capital into public markets - although that decision too is facing stiff opposition from some quarters.
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Some of Britain's leading fintechs, such as digital bank Monzo - which was fined more than £20m for anti-money laundering failures this week - are considering floating in London or New York.
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Revolut and Zilch are also expected to consider both listing venues seriously when they decide the time is right to go public.
A Treasury spokesperson said: "Fintech is the future of financial services.
"Next week's Mansion House will set out how we plan to support the sector to thrive."
