The figures provide the latest evidence of how firms are scrambling to respond to the tax hike and as the boss of Marks & Spencer said it would be a challenge.
More than half of British businesses plan to raise prices in response to Labour’s £25bn National Insurance raid, a Bank of England poll revealed yesterday.They come as the boss of Marks & Spencer said it would be a challenge, revealing that the high street giant would have to rethink its recruitment and investment plans after the shock increase and would aim to pass on ‘as little as possible’ to customers.
It comes after the Chancellor stunned businesses by announcing in her Budget in October last year that the employer rate of national insurance would rise from 13.8 per cent to 15 per cent. At the same time, the salary threshold for having to pay employer NI was reduced from £9,100 to £5,000.A forecast from the British Retail Consortium yesterday predicted that food prices would rise by 4.2 per cent later this year as firms grapple with higher costs.
Meanwhile Tesco, Britain’s biggest supermarket, confirmed a £250 million impact from the NI hike alone as it published trading figures.M&S boss Stuart Machin said the company had been forced to ‘rework’ its plans for coming years as a result of the NI hike, which it ‘didn’t plan’ forThis comes after the bakery chain bumped up the price of its classic savoury pastry by 5p, meaning it now costs £1.
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