A new survey reveals declining business confidence due to rising tax rates and anxieties surrounding the Employment Rights Bill. The BCC Quarterly Economic Survey highlights the impact of the recent budget on businesses, with many anticipating reduced investment and price increases. Small businesses also express concerns about the Employment Rights Bill, fearing it will deter hiring.
A major survey has demonstrated a decline in business confidence, reaching low levels. The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) Quarterly Economic Survey found that concern around tax has spiked since October’s Budget – Labour’s first in 14 years – with just 49 percent of responding companies expecting their turnover to increase over the next 12 months. Some 63 percent of firms cited tax as a worry, compared with 48 percent in the third quarter of the year.
There were significant tax rises on businesses in Rachel Reeves’s Budget, with employers’ national insurance contributions being hiked from 13.8 percent to 15 percent. Shevaun Haviland, director general of the BCC, said: “The worrying reverberations of the Budget are clear to see in our survey data. Businesses confidence has slumped in a pressure cooker of rising costs and taxes. “Firms of all shapes and sizes are telling us the national insurance hike is particularly damaging. Businesses are already cutting back on investment and say they will have to put up prices in the coming months. The figures come at the same time as a separate piece of research from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) found that 92 percent of small employers are worried about the Employment Rights Bill, with 67 percent saying they plan to recruit fewer staff, and 32 percent set to reduce headcount. Among other measures, the bill will require employers to justify the refusal of flexible working requests and remove the three-day waiting period for statutory sick pay so employees are eligible from the first day of illness or injury. Tina McKenzie, FSB’s policy chair, said: “Small firms have made it crystal clear that the Bill will not motivate them to hire more whatsoever. Their feedback is emphatic, resounding, and overwhelming. “Ministers must show they get the risk to jobs and avoid a cavalier, dogmatic or patronising approach to the loud and clear feedback from small businesse
BUSINESS CONFIDENCE TAXATION EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS BILL SMALL BUSINESSES ECONOMY
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