Easyjet adds to UK equities flight fears

Private equity companies are flush with cash and easyJet’s share price has been hit by the conflict-driven disruption to aviation. But why is UK plc as a whole trading at a discount? Some, including Nicholas Lyons, chair of Standard Life and a former lord mayor of the City of London, trace the trouble back to when Gordon Brown scrapped the tax credit on dividends received by pension funds investing in UK companies. This precipitated a decades-long rotation out of stocks into gilts, bonds and, eventually, global passive funds.