Regarding employee share ownership, it’s not a case of ‘job done’ for tax advantaged plans. Despite recent successes in lobbying policymakers to raise monthly tax-advantaged contribution limits for employees.
Head of ifs ProShare Gabbi Stopp warned against complacency and shared her views on the future of the industry at the 23rd annual Employee Share Plans Conference. Setting the agenda for the next 18 months, Gabbi stated that there was much to be done to bring employee share ownership to a wider audience, including the further simplification of employee share plans, the removal of barriers to participation among employees and the embracing technology to foster employee share ownership. Held in the City of London, the Conference is attended by business leaders from FTSE100 and FTSE250 companies, as well as international organisations and innovative start-ups and was, this year, run under the theme of “Making Good Decisions”, to include a broad range of related topics.
Twenty-nine seminars were held throughout the day, featuring presentations from organisations such as BT, Barclays, Deloitte and UBS, with keynote addresses from TSB CEO Dr Paul Pester and Olympic Gold-winning rower, Ben Hunt-Davis MBE. Commenting on the conference, Gabbi Stopp said: “The importance of employee share ownership to businesses, their employees and the economy as a whole cannot be denied,and our annual Employee Share Plans conference reflected this passion and commitment from the all stakeholders for furthering this ideal.
“As an industry we must now look to how we can further widen access to the benefits of employee share ownership so that everyone can benefit, be it from supporting financial education in the workplace, to progressing our cause in Parliament. We’d like to thank everyone who attended what was a hugely enjoyable and successful conference and especially to our keynote speakers, sponsors and delegates for making the annual Employee Share Plans Conference such a resounding success.”
