Domestic policies are choking UK businesses
The last decade of domestic policy decisions has created a towering cost stack that is choking business growth, writes British Chamber of Commerce director Shevaun Haviland
Much of the UK has faced a summer of sweltering temperatures as the country has bounced from one unrelenting heatwave to another. Businesses know all too well that unrelenting feeling. A decade of constant cost pressures from domestic policy decisions has been hugely damaging. It’s a cost stack that is choking business growth.
Before a pound of profit is made the list of costs mounts up for businesses. In the last 10 years we’ve seen increases in minimum wage, employer National Insurance, business rates, employment rights, the apprenticeship levy, climate levies, IR35 changes, VAT thresholds and packaging taxes – to name just a few. This isn’t a party-political issue, policy choices from successive governments have piled cost after cost on British business.
Last month, I visited Lancashire to meet some of our amazing Chamber members. Whether they were manufacturers, construction firms, retailers or in the hospitality sector, the business all told me the same story. Cost pressures are damaging investment and recruitment. One business told me they took on 25 apprentices last year. This year they are taking on just one. From my travels across the UK, I know that isn’t a unique story.
How much have domestic policy costs risen for your business?
We need to be up front about the cost pressures. That is why the British Chambers of Commerce has launched a new Cost Stack Calculator, in the pages of this newspaper, in the run up to the Budget. By using the online tool businesses can quickly find out how much domestic policy-driven costs have increased for them over the past decade. The results are stark.
Our modelling shows that for a typical SME employing 50 people with turnover of £5m, the cost stack from government policies has risen by more than 70 per cent in the past 10 years.
This is not about one tax rise or one policy decision, it is about the cumulative impact of them all. For businesses, every pound spent absorbing higher costs is a pound that cannot go into buying a new machine, hiring a new recruit, investing in new technology or expanding into a new export market.
Our latest survey of 4,700 businesses from across the UK shows only 17 per cent of firms have increased investment in the last three months. That’s the lowest level since the pandemic, and a clear sign of the cost stack impact.
Andy Burnham has made a start in reducing costs for firms with a welcome cut on business rates for pubs, clubs and music venues in England from January next year. But we urgently need action which will help reform business rates for all sectors, not just some.
Business resilience alone will not deliver the investment-led growth this country needs. More and more businesses I speak to are asking whether it is all worth it. Government must give firms the confidence and capacity to carry on, invest and grow.
We need policymakers to stop adding to the cost stack and start taking layers away. October’s budget will be a pivotal moment and our message is simple. Back business. Cut costs. Deliver growth.
Use the BCC’s calculator to see how the cost stack has increased for your business – visit https://www.britishchambers.org.uk/cost-stack-calculator/
Shevaun Haviland is director general of the British Chambers of Commerce