London, UK: The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has warned that tax rises seen in the recent budget mean that businesses are “looking with heavy hearts to cut training and investment, delay net zero projects, or pass on costs to customers”.
CBI chief executive Rain Newton-Smith told the confederation’s annual conference that businesses across many sectors are “being hit by a tough trading environment that just got tougher” due to changes in National Insurance contributions (NICs) inheritance tax and other issues such as business rates.
In her speech she urged the government to consider a number of reforms to improve economic growth, such as “speeding up fixing our broken business rates system”.
“What really defines growth is the decisions made in boardrooms up and down the country. It’s chief financial officers (CFOs) asking: can we afford to invest? Can we afford to expand? Can we afford to take a chance on new people?
“Well after the Budget, the answer we’re hearing from so many firms is – not yet.
The rise in National Insurance and the stark lowering of the threshold, caught us all off guard. Along with the expansion and rise of the National Living Wage – which everyone wants to accommodate – and the potential cost of the Employment Rights Bill ……they put a heavy burden on business.
“Firms that have been through really tough years are now in damage control again.
“Tax rises like this must never again be simply done to business. That’s the road to unintended consequences.”
