Small firms leader calls for delay to NI bills hike

THE British Chambers of Commerce has made a lastditch plea to Rishi Sunak to delay his planned National Insurance hike.

Ahead of the Chancellor’s Spring Statement on Wednesday, BCC director general Shevaun Haviland warned of a ‘cost of doing business crisis’ and demanded urgent action to support British firms.

Families face a squeeze on disposable income, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, with food and energy bills set to soar. The hike will add £505 a year to the tax bill of a worker earning £50,000 per year.

Writing for The Mail on Sunday, Haviland said: ‘Around the country, businesses are being crushed under the weight of soaring energy bills, price spikes in every conceivable raw material, and an intensely squeezed labour market.

‘Yet next month, the Government plans to drop an increase in National Insurance contributions on top of this mountain of cost pressures. This tax rise will come as a knockout blow for some businesses bruised by the ruinous effects of two years of Covid.’

Haviland called for the 1.25 percentage point hike to be delayed for a year and for the introduction of an energy price cap for small businesses, which will otherwise ‘go to the wall’.