Rachel Reeves Budget back in October (it seems like a long time ago, doesn’t it?) needed to be fiscally astute whilst encouraging growth. The UK, like most of the Western World, has an ageing population, huge debts and the desperate need for more young migrants and more wealth creators. The most notable changes which affect employment are the increases in Employers National Insurance Contributions (the ‘Tax on jobs’) and the lowering of the threshold where Employers start having to pay this tax from £175 per week down to £100 a week.
I think these increases will backfire and have a detrimental effect on the economy of the UK and overall, a detrimental impact on the amount of tax raised.
The upcoming changes in the Workers Rights Bill will also not be helpful to businesses and hence employees, potentially costing £5 Billion to implement and having a disproportionately large effect of small Companies. As usual the intention is good but the net effect is to hurt those that the legislation should protect.
Hopefully some of these changes might be reversed, we can but hope!
Steve Williams
