Come back Sid! City minister calls for investors to buy British 

City minister Andrew Griffith urged UK retail investors to return to the stock market as he harked back to the ‘Tell Sid’ privatisation boom of the 1980s.

‘Come back, Sid, we are going to make it easier and better for you,’ Griffith told a financial services industry audience.

He was speaking at the launch of a report by industry body UK Finance that identified ways to reverse ‘negative trends’ in the UK but also sought to dispel false perceptions about its problems.

Buy British: City minister Andrew Griffith (pictured) urged UK retail investors to return to the stock market as he harked back to the ‘Tell Sid’ privatisation boom of the 1980s

It comes amid soul searching in the City and Westminster about London’s status as a financial centre after a number of comp-anies chose to list in the US rather than the UK.

The decision by Cambridge-based chip designer Arm to stage a blockbuster float in New York rather than London later this year dealt a particularly heavy blow.

A high-level City taskforce has been set up to investigate changes needed, while proposed reforms by the Government and regulators are already in train.

The UK Finance analysis was the latest in a slew of reports offering solutions – identifying the need to boost the capital available to growth companies and encouraging an environment in which investors are prepared to take risks to gain greater rewards.

Griffith referenced the Tell Sid marketing campaign of 1986, when the public were urged to buy shares in the privatisation of British Gas. He said: ‘We need to create new opportunities for retail investors to participate again in public company ownership.’