A Budget that finally listens to founders
Chancellor John Healey has pledged to build his Autumn Budget around the cost of business, promising relief for the small and fast-growing firms he credits with driving the UK economy. Speaking during a visit to Aberdeen to mark the approval of the Jackdaw gas field, the Chancellor said he wants to be a leader “who backs businesses in Britain making a profit”.
The comments, made in a newspaper interview during his Aberdeen trip, mark a striking shift in tone for a Treasury that has raised the private sector’s tax burden at three consecutive fiscal events. Healey praised the founders who keep going through pressure through, in his words, “sheer bloody-mindedness”, and said his budget choices would recognise the strain on businesses as well as on households.
Why the Treasury is changing course
Healey conceded that the government’s overhaul of workers’ rights, together with successive increases to employer national insurance and business rates, have left many firms under “a lot of pressure”. In his conversations with business groups he has catalogued the pressures himself, listing employment law, regulation, tax, input costs and strained supply chains. The Chancellor has defended the earlier revenue measures as necessary to repair what he called the Conservatives’ economic “dereliction of duty”, while admitting they have made running a firm harder.
That concession matters for boards and investors weighing Britain against other markets.
Lighter reporting on the way
As part of the drive, the Chancellor has signalled plans to reduce the reporting burden on smaller firms, a measure that would free management time across thousands of mid-sized companies. Details remain scarce, but Treasury officials have indicated the changes sit alongside wider efforts to rebuild trust with the private sector. For founders, less paperwork would be a tangible early win.
Investors spared a capital gains raid
More significantly for wealth holders and private investors, the Treasury has ruled out any increase in capital gains tax, citing the chilling impact a rise would have on investment in the UK. Speculation had been building that ministers would lift the tax on asset appreciation after prominent figures inside Andy Burnham’s administration argued for it. Cabinet Office minister Louise Haigh has pushed to equalise capital gains rates with income tax, while Defence Secretary Wes Streeting has described the levy as “a wealth tax that works”.
Healey’s decision to rule the increase out will reassure entrepreneurs planning exits, family offices holding UK assets and the angel networks that back early-stage firms.
A gold-plated visa left on hold
The rethink does not extend to every wealth-facing proposal. Reports suggest the Chancellor has refused to rubber stamp advanced plans for an investment visa that would grant wealthy foreigners the instant right to stay in Britain in return for investing £5 million in the UK economy across five years. Critics inside the business community have warned that blocking the scheme could starve companies of investor capital at a time when growth funding matters most.
What this means for business leaders
For executives, the message from the Treasury is that the tax-raising phase has peaked and the emphasis has turned to making Britain a place where profit is respected again. Healey, who surprised the City when Prime Minister Andy Burnham appointed him Chancellor, now faces the harder task of delivering measures that visibly lower costs for firms while stabilising the public finances. His round tables and one-to-one meetings with business leaders suggest the pressures they have reported have been heard.
The test will be the detail, and boardrooms will be watching closely when the measures are set out. If the commitments hold, Britain’s most determined founders may finally feel the wind behind them rather than in their faces.