Labour's tax grab budget and broken promises on business rates mean price rises are inevitable, warns Currys boss
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Currys boss Alex Baldock has warned that the Budget will lead to ‘inevitable’ price rises and stifle job creation. And he attacked Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ failure to tackle hated business rates, saying the Government had broken promises to act.
It came as Pret A Manger founder Julian Metcalfe described business rates as ‘mind-bogglingly expensive’. Baldock said: ‘This is an unhelpful Budget for jobs, prices, investment and growth.’. The comments come after Reeves blindsided UK firms by hiking the employer rate of National Insurance Contributions (NICs) from 13.8 per cent to 15 per cent and cutting the threshold for paying it from £9,100 to £5,000.
Currys was one of 81 retailers that wrote to the Chancellor last month warning the change would result in fewer jobs, lower pay growth and shop closures. Cost of living: Currys boss Alex Baldock (pictured) said the October Budget 'will add cost quickly and materially, depress investment and hiring, boost automation and offshoring'.
Yesterday, as it published half-year results, Currys said it was taking a £12million hit from the NICs hike and £9million from an increase in the minimum wage announced at the Budget. Baldock said the changes ‘will add cost quickly and materially, depress investment and hiring, boost automation and offshoring, and make some price rises inevitable’.
