Five things business wants from the Budget

{"text":[[{"start":5.163,"text":"In the run-up to John Healey’s first Budget, the UK chancellor and Prime Minister Andy Burnham have held a series of private engagements with business leaders. Two executives said they had made it clear the government had just one shot to avoid destroying business confidence in Labour while others were more polite in their lobbying."}],[{"start":23.84,"text":"Top of the private sector’s wishlist is for Healey to take the pressure off state finances by tackling public spending rather than seeking to raise revenues from business. But in the absence of radical action and bold plans to boost growth, pragmatic business leaders have said they largely want Healey to deliver a “do no harm” Budget on October 28."}],[{"start":43.509,"text":"Here are their main asks:"}],[{"start":46.08,"text":"Make it cheaper to hire young workers"}],[{"start":48.188,"text":"Over a breakfast of fruit skewers and bacon sandwiches at Number 11 on Tuesday, a handful of retail chief executives told the chancellor that if he really wanted to tackle youth unemployment, he should lower the cost of hiring."}],[{"start":61.52,"text":"The British Retail Consortium and the Confederation of British Industry have aligned in their calls for Healey to reverse the damage from the 2024 Budget and increase the threshold for when employers start paying national insurance contributions from £5,000 to £6,000. Businesses say this would make it easier to create entry-level jobs for young people who often rely on the retail and hospitality sectors for their first jobs."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":85.279,"text":"A specific reduction in national insurance contributions for under-25-year-olds — as Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said she will do — has been rejected by the government."}],[{"start":95.901,"text":"Some businesses are also calling for the government to freeze any further increases in the minimum wage, which has risen by almost three-quarters in five years. However, the mood music is that Healey will wait until next month’s publication of Alan Milburn’s review into youth unemployment before making any concessions on national insurance contributions."}],[{"start":115.712,"text":"Rates help for the small — without hurting the big"}],[{"start":120.08,"text":"Burnham had promised business rates relief for pubs and small high street premises, and the Federation of Small Businesses is urging the prime minister not to break his promise."}],[{"start":129.78,"text":"The problem is the relief has to be funded from somewhere, and Burnham had suggested targeting online retailers via a higher levy on their warehouses. The Treasury now appears to have backed away from a warehouse tax after the likes of John Lewis and Marks and Spencer argued it would hit them too."}],[{"start":148.4,"text":"However, the Treasury still has the legal option of increasing a rates surcharge on top premises that are valued over £500,000. The retail, hospitality and leisure industry wants to be carved out from that top surcharge after arguing that increasing the levy would hit hotels, department stores and supermarkets."}],[{"start":166.813,"text":"If the Treasury bowed to these demands it would mean the burden would largely fall on City towers and office blocks in the south. There are additional calls for the government to scrap linking business rate increases to inflation and to speed up rate reductions when property values fall."}],[{"start":182.62,"text":"Abandon a raid on the banks"}],[{"start":184.421,"text":"Banks are braced for higher taxes with Healey seen as most likely to raise the surcharge from 3 per cent to 8 per cent, reversing a cut former chancellor Jeremy Hunt made in 2023 to offset an increase in corporation tax. Domestic lenders, who earlier this week had been called by Healey the “jewel of our crown”, have already warned that such a raid could reduce lending to businesses and push up the costs of mortgages across the UK."}],[{"start":208.56,"text":"If they are hit with higher taxes, the banks want the government to soften the blow by explicitly spelling out its expectations for the Bank of England’s independent regulator to look at reducing capital buffers and bring the requirements in line with overseas peers."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":223.04,"text":"City firms also want the chancellor to set out in detail how the government will fulfil its pledge to cut regulation by 25 per cent as the annual cost of compliance for regulation costs the finance sector £33.9bn a year, according to TheCityUK."}],[{"start":239.652,"text":"Make energy cheaper"}],[{"start":241.42,"text":"Britain has the highest industrial electricity costs in the world and is especially vulnerable to volatile gas prices. Businesses want the government to ease some of the burden by removing policy costs from non-domestic electricity bills, such as the extra renewable levy to fund Sizewell, transmission usage costs and the climate change levy."}],[{"start":260.604,"text":"Manufacturers, particularly those in the food and drink sector, also want the energy support via the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme to be significantly widened from the small pool of 10,000 businesses when there are about 130,000 manufacturing businesses in the UK."}],[{"start":261.104,"text":"Tax relief — not just tax rises"}],[{"start":280.96,"text":"Britain’s entrepreneurs appear to have the ear of Number 10 and Number 11, and they have been calling for tax relief rather than rises."}],[{"start":286.929,"text":"UK venture capital firms and tech founders have lobbied the government to abandon the idea of matching capital gains tax to income tax and resist any CGT increase that could damage Britain’s attractiveness. Alongside that, they have asked for reassurances that exit taxes, via capital gains charges on leaving the UK, will not be introduced."}],[{"start":307.68,"text":"Calls for capital gains relief to be deferred if proceeds are reinvested into the UK may well be answered."}],[{"start":315.526,"text":"Meanwhile, the City, led by the London Stock Exchange, wants the removal of stamp duty on share trading to boost retail investor appetite in equities. There are also broader calls for Healey to use the Budget to lay a bolder framework for pension funds to use their trillions of pounds to invest more in UK equities and infrastructure projects."}],[{"start":338.96,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1792390693_5658.mp3"}