Britain must reignite its 'buccaneering spirit' to boost the economy, says top industrialist

See more This is Money on Google - save us as a Preferred Source Updated: 03:05 EDT, 7 September 2026 One of Britain’s leading businessmen has said the country must revive its ‘buccaneering spirit’ to boost the stock market and wider economy.Former Melrose chief Simon Peckham, who has made a fortune turning around industrial firms under a ‘buy, improve, sell’ model and is now investing heavily in the US, said bosses on this side of the Atlantic should be ‘a bit braver’ in raising money to grow.He called on the Government to ‘stop discouraging’ investors from ploughing cash into the London stock market, warning that in an ‘over-regulated and over-safe environment you end up with less investment going into UK companies’.‘The UK needs an outward-going entrepreneurial mindset,’ said Peckham, whose new venture Rosebank aims to replicate the success of Melrose and has already raised £3bn from shareholders to buy three US manufacturers in less than a year. Sounding the alarm over high tax rates in Britain, he went on: ‘It needs to encourage people to be entrepreneurial. Former Melrose boss Simon Peckham has called on the Government to 'stop discouraging' investors‘If people take these risks, there has to be an appropriate trade-off in terms of what they pay in tax.’He said the tax system should help ‘to make the cake bigger’ rather than focus on ‘dividing a shrinking cake’.Peckham’s new venture Rosebank last week announced its first dividend, just two years after listing on the stock market in London. It is now one of the largest companies in the FTSE 250 and is eyeing promotion to the blue-chip FTSE 100 index.Peckham, 64, said he hopes to do another deal in the next 12 months – most likely in America. He said: ‘We are focusing on investing in the US. We are very happy with our exposure to the US market. Bits of the US economy are coming back nicely.’He said that regulations in Europe and the UK, particularly around employment law, meant the ‘timescale’ for a successful turnaround ‘is much shorter in the US’. But he insisted that it was possible to raise funds in London, just as Rosebank has done.‘We have raised £3bn from the UK stock market in the last 12 to 18 months to deploy into acquisitions,’ Peckham said. ‘If you have the right story, I don’t accept the premise that the funding isn’t there.’He pointed out that pension fund investment in the UK stock market has fallen from over 50 per cent to around 4 per cent in the past quarter of a century.Peckham said ministers must ‘find a way to encourage – or stop discouraging – people to invest in our local domestic market’.DIY INVESTING PLATFORMSAJ BellAJ BellEasy investing and ready-made portfoliosHargreaves LansdownHargreaves LansdownFree fund dealing and investment ideasinteractive investorinteractive investorFlat-fee investing from £4.99 per monthFreetradeFreetradeInvesting Isa now free on basic planTrading 212Trading 212Free share dealing and no account feeAffiliate links: If you take out a product This is Money may earn a commission. These deals are chosen by our editorial team, as we think they are worth highlighting. This does not affect our editorial independence.Compare the best investing account for you