LONDON - British finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng outlined what he called an "unprecedented set of tax incentives" for businesses in newly-announced investment zones, saying the government would also liberalise planning rules for specified agreed sites.

"On purchases of land and buildings for commercial or new residential development, there will be no stamp duty to pay whatsoever," Kwarteng told lawmakers in a fiscal statement on Friday.

"On newly-occupied business premises, there will be no business rates to pay whatsoever. And if a business hires a new employee in the tax site, then on the first 50,000 pounds ($55,800) they earn, the employer will pay no National Insurance whatsoever."

($1 = 0.8961 pounds)

(Reporting by David Milliken and Alistair Smout, editing by Elizabeth Piper)