Sir Martin Sorrell: Don’t work from home, take your pet to work!

Sir Martin Sorrell admits his views on working from home may seem old-fashioned. He would prefer to see the employees of digital marketing company S4 Capital visit more often.

But he’s more open to another modern office practice: bringing a pet to work.

His own dog, a red setter called Ferus, strolls amiably around the London headquarters when The Mail on Sunday visits.

“I would rather have the staff bring in animals than work three days a week,” Sorrell said. Working from home had its benefits during the pandemic, he adds, but is now causing “observable declines in productivity.”

Research may show that people are happier and more productive, but Sorrell says, “I don’t necessarily believe that. I’m 79, maybe I’m old fashioned. Overall, I find that time away from the office and lack of interpersonal connection is a real problem.”

Sorrell, like his colleagues in the city, is also coming to grips with the plans being hatched by the Labor government with the budget just days away.

He is concerned about plans to tackle inheritance tax, capital gains and national insurance contributions – and that these changes come at the same time as businesses are also facing unrest in the form of a workers’ rights package led by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner.

“The government is in a hole,” he says, and has to take “pretty drastic measures” to get the public finances in order. But is imposing further taxes on wealth creators the solution?

“We hear that the broadest backs will have to bear the burden – which I don’t disagree with. But at some point, tax rates become a barrier.”

Sorrell remembers a time when the top income tax rate was 83 percent, but “the difference between now and then is that people are much more mobile” and can leave the country more easily, he says.

Changes to non-dom status – a concession for people who are tax residents of Britain but whose main ‘domicile’ is abroad – have ‘probably already stimulated some movement’. The rule allows people to pay UK tax on income or capital gains made abroad, but is due to be abolished next spring and Labor has discussed further tightening the arrangements that will replace it.

There is also strong speculation that inheritance tax rules will change. Currently, gifts made more than seven years before death are exempt, but it appears this will be extended to ten years.

“I think people will leave, don’t they?” Sorrell says. Raising wealth taxes will have “very significant consequences as it forces people to liquidate assets to pay taxes and/or leave the country.” OT that he has a lot of sympathy for leading business people

N who move abroad but continue to comment on British affairs. Monaco-based Ineos boss Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sir James Dyson come to mind, although he does not name them.

People ‘making statements from Monaco, or Singapore, or elsewhere about what should or shouldn’t happen in Britain… it’s a bit difficult for them to make those statements’.

Sorrell says he accepts there could be ‘two or three years of pain and tough decisions’, as Labor has suggested: ‘It’s a bit like a business losing money and you have to cut costs to get it into shape, and then there’s the sunny highlands after that.’

But he fears the action Labor is taking could backfire. He claims Labour’s workers’ rights package, including day one rights for workers, is the party’s “Achilles heel”. on.’

To boost growth, Sorrell would like to see more incentives for investors – along the lines of some of the tax breaks and investment zones introduced under the previous Tory government.

Without a coherent strategy that starts to bear fruit after a few years, Labour’s large majority in the House of Commons could start to look vulnerable, he says, especially as electoral quirks saw the Labor majority come to power and only 20 percent of voters voted for the party.

‘If the Tories have a strong leader, who knows what could happen at the next election? Especially if the plan does not turn out to be a good long-term plan.’ Who should that leader be: Robert Jenrick or Kemi Badenoch?

‘I think Badenoch is a strong leader. She has strong opinions and I think she’s feisty, and I think she’s articulate and I think she’s tough.”

Sorrell spoke to The Mail on Sunday in between a hectic round of travel, including several stops in the US, where companies are eagerly awaiting the upcoming presidential contest.

The business community has pinned its hopes on one candidate, he says, adding: “It’s on a razor’s edge, 50/50. The stock market says it’s Trump, I think the stock market will fall if Kamala wins.

‘The business community doesn’t like to say it, but Trump stands for lower taxes and less regulation.’

Trump’s bet on the decline in interest rates is part of the reason for the current high valuations of the US stock market, he says. That’s despite the threat of imposing new tariffs under Trump – a policy that many, including the International Monetary Fund, believe could stifle growth.

“There are obviously concerns about that and the impact on trade and inflation, but maybe Trump is using that as a negotiating tool.”

Sorrell is best known for building his former company WPP into the largest player in the advertising industry. After an acrimonious departure in 2018, he restarted S4 Capital, which operates in the growing digital sector and has grown rapidly by gobbling up companies such as consultancy Mighty Hive and content producer MediaMonks.

But it has had a tough time, recently warning that lower spending from technology customers would hit revenues. Shares are down more than 90 percent from their peak three years ago.

He says: “We still have challenges when it comes to bringing everything together. We are very technically oriented. Technology accounts for 50 percent of our revenue and while advertising revenues have been strong, investment in advertising and marketing has been scaled back.”

Sorrell suffered a serious illness last year while being treated for cancer. Now he’s over that and says, ‘All’s well. Scans everything clearly.’

It hasn’t stopped his jet-setting lifestyle, which has recently taken him to the Middle East, California, New York, Detroit and Spain. That’s why his dog Ferus is with him.

“I’ve been traveling, so I haven’t seen him in two weeks,” he says.

What does the name mean?

“It’s Latin for fierce, because he’s not,” he laughs.