Ed Miliband called for a business ethic that empowers long-term shareholders and claimed that current dismal growth forecasts, increased borrowing and mass unemployment showed the UK is now at an economic turning point Press Association

Ed Miliband has expanded on his Labour conference call for an end to predatory capitalism, saying he wanted to re-instill a business ethic that empowered long-term shareholders who were committed to a firm.

The Labour leader called for long-term shareholders to have greater voting rights in takeovers, backed workers on company remuneration committees and said he wanted to break up unwarranted private sector monopolies in banking, energy and the media.

Calling for a new responsible capitalism, he said his target was predatory behaviour that was bad for the country and for business.

He added that he was convinced, from his conversations with entrepreneurs, that his ideas were not anti-business but "bang on pro-business" and also said Thursday's dismal growth forecasts, increased borrowing and mass unemployment showed the UK was at an economic turning point.

"We cannot carry on like this, with austerity at home, collective austerity abroad," he said. "It is no solution to the problems of jobs, growth or the deficit."

In his most important speech since his address to the Labour conference six weeks ago, Miliband cited the former CBI director general Richard Lambert in support of his case for a new, more patient, form of capitalism.

He claimed his argument had also been embraced by the archbishop of Canterbury and Bob Diamond, the chief executive of Barclays.

In practice, much of his analysis is shared by the team around the business secretary, Vince Cable.

Cable has established two reviews – one on executive pay and another on corporate long-termism being undertaken by Professor John Kay – the findings of which are to be published shortly.

Miliband set out five areas for reform. First, he called for a new relationship between finance and the real economy, based on banks lending to business and not seeing success simply measured by short-term profits made and taxes paid.

"Businesses deserve a finance system there for the long haul when it comes to creating value in the real economy," he said.

He said he was also looking at proposals for a UK Investment Bank and at the US experience of the programmes run by the country's small business administration which have helped firms such as Apple, FedEx and Intel succeed.

Second, drawing on the work of Professor Michael Porter, Miliband said he wanted firms to think about achieving long-term success, requiring institutional investors to become less impatient for quick returns.

He said he had met "business people over and over again who tell me they simply cannot get support for the long-term investments they need", adding: "We need to look at why so many funds of institutional investors seem to be managed as if the only important issue was the next quarterly announcement.

"We need to look at whether the voting rights of shareholders should always be the same from day one of ownership. We need to look at how the tax system can encourage and discourage short-term behaviour that holds Britain back."

Miliband said he wanted to consider giving shareholders with long-term holdings greater power, particularly at times of takeovers.

The idea was floated by Lord Mandelson at the time of Cadbury Kraft takeover in 2010. Boards of companies being targeted by takeover offers often face conflicting pressures, torn between their obligation to maximise value for shareholders and a desire to deliver long-term growth plans that may ultimately generate better value.

The Companies Act requires public company boards take into account the impact of a potential takeover on stakeholders other than shareholders, but this ranks below the fiduciary duty to shareholders.

Miliband said he wanted to look at the value of continuing with the quarterly company report, asking whether it put pressure on patient capitalism.

In the third of his five steps for reform, he called for a better system of encouraging vocational skills, meeting unmet market need. He said a system was needed where the "benefits of training are shared between the firm, the worker and society".

Fourth, he called for restraints on executive pay, saying: "Just as in our welfare state, we need to ensure a greater relationship between contribution and reward, so too at the top."

He called for an employee on the remuneration committee of every major company to restore trust and transparency on pay.

Finally, he urged an end to "large concentrations of unaccountable private power that lead to higher prices, exploit consumers and lead to inefficiency".

He also said the scale of the financial crisis facing government meant the old Blair-Brown approach, with social progress resting on higher investment, was over.

"The failure of the government's austerity plan means that the next Labour government is likely to inherit a deficit that still needs to be reduced," he said. "So even then resources will have to be focused significantly on paying down that deficit."