Michael Moore's Outlook on substance over style

If you want to start an inter-generational argument, you have your pick of topics to get things going. At the less serious end of the spectrum, not to be confused with less passionate, is your choice of best action movie franchise.

In truth it is really simple – clearly James Bond is the defining hero of the genre. But my goodness are there some noisy fans of Ethan Hunt, and even Jason Bourne, out there. (Unless my family is atypical, but straw polling suggests not.)

Our preferences may risk dividing us, but what keeps us together is the escapism of movies where style matters more than substance. Alas, back in the real world we have to grapple with substance and reality, with style as an optional extra.

Which begs the question I have been toying with over the past few weeks of the conference season – are the UK political parties living in the real world or masking the realities they, and we, face? Arguably, the party conference season is never the moment for confronting hard truths – after all, they are designed as showcases for party leaders and other leading figures, as much as they are deliberative assemblies (and some don’t even pretend to be that).

But to spend time on the circuit is to get a little beyond the official facade and learn more about the substance of what is troubling the key policymakers (and wannabe policymakers). Alas, if you were hoping for some enlightenment on solving the public finances problem, perhaps next year.

There is no escaping the horrible reality that in a more competitive world, maintaining living standards and expected levels of public services in Europe is challenging, not least when the capacity, or willingness, to accept the commensurate level of taxes is absent.

As a result, the parties are universally stuck with commitments to leave the biggest taxes (such as income tax and VAT) untouched, while squeezing as much as possible for public spending priorities from borrowing. To the delight of the bond markets, or not.

With the party conferences now behind us, attention this month in the UK is trained solely on the governing party, as we anticipate the Budget. At her own conference in Liverpool, the Chancellor reinforced the UK government’s commitment to sticking within the fiscal rules and tackling the deficit, which has been testing the declared boundaries in recent months. That re-statement was welcome and markets reacted accordingly.

To be credible about that fiscal discipline, there was an open acknowledgment that taxes will have to go up. And then a predictable flurry of speculative stories about which ones were most likely. Which I will not add to here. But suffice to say it has been a busy period emphasising in public and private the key requirement that the UK must remain competitive for our industry, or more attractive jurisdictions will win out.

Of course, the missing element here is economic growth. The UK enjoyed the best growth in the G7 in the first half, and is predicted by the IMF to come only second to the USA over the course of the whole year. But nobody is exactly knocking it out of the park and it is no short term route to solving the public finance challenges.

To get to the point where it will move the dial, and ease the pressures, there has to be an ongoing focus on increasing investment across the country. To underline this reality, ‘Moore’s Tours’ took in visits to Edinburgh and Birmingham this month, beyond the four conferences where I took the pulse of the political parties.

The metaphorical pitch decks at these government-led (or supported) investment summits certainly showed plenty of potential. And the growing recognition of the central importance of private capital in providing the investment to generate the growth was a welcome part of the discussions.

But back to the here and now, and pesky reality, the latest Mansion House Compact figures show that the proportion of ‘unlisted equities’ in the default schemes of DC pensions now sits at 0.6%, up from 0.36%, and still some way short of the 5% target in 2030. Within that figure we estimate that 0.007% has been allocated to venture capital, and probably not much more to private equity.

While James Bond might like the vibe, or even style, of the VC number, it remains too low. We need much more of that pension capital to get the investment underway and generate the much-needed growth. After the Budget it will need to remain a key focus for everyone.

Michael Moore
Chief Executive, BVCA

This article was originally published on 5 November 2025 on the Private Equity News website here.