Time for ministers to get serious about stamp duty on shares - a terrible advert for London

This is the 0.5% levy on purchases of shares in UK companies. The US, China and Germany don't impose any equivalent tax at all

- Nils Pratley

It was another depressing year for departures from the London stock market. Back in January, it was Flutter heading for the exit. The owner of Paddy Power, Betfair and Sky Bet got itself a secondary listing in the US and said it would quickly convert it into the primary one, which it did in May. When December arrived, we were still on the same theme. Ashtead Group, the £27bn construction rental company that has been listed in London since 1986, announced plans to shift its primary listing to New York. Other escapees include Just Eat Takeaway, which is off to Amsterdam.

None of these companies is departing on a whim, of course. Paddy Power says its US operation, FanDuel, will soon be its most important; Ashtead says it makes 98% of its profits in the US; Just Eat says it just wants to cut costs and the Netherlands is its corporate home. And, actually, the handful of companies moving their listings is tiny compared with the number that departed because they have been taken over.