Over 6,000 company directors have left the UK in the last 12 months.
Rachel Reeves has created a ‘hostile environment’ for wealth creators and business leaders (Image: Getty)
Rachel Reeves’ “doomsday” Budget is forcing business owners to exit the UK. Companies House filings show over the last 12 months a total of 6,100 company directors have left Britain. This is a 42% rise on the previous 12 months when 4,300 left.
Shadow Business Secretary, Andrew Griffiths, accused the Chancellor of creating a “hostile environment” for wealth creators and business leaders. The top Tory said it seemed likely the UK is days away from a “doomsday” Budget.
He told The Telegraph: “With an exodus of businesses already taking place, there is every indication that it will only get worse. This is going to have a ruinous effect on the country.”
Anna Leach, chief economist at the Institute of Directors, said businesses have been hit by tax increases and there was a “feeling of despair” at the policy speculation which has preceded Ms Reeves’ financial statement on Wednesday (November 26).
She said businesses had been promised policy stability and a long-term approach, but the current environment couldn’t be further from that.
Ms Reeves has pledged to get a “grip the cost of living” in her Budget, but she is widely expected to raise taxes in a bid to bridge a multibillion-pound gap in her spending plans.
The Chancellor, writing in The Mirror, acknowledged that high prices “hit ordinary families most” and that the economy “feels stuck” for too many.
She added: “That’s why in my Budget on Wednesday I will take action to grip the cost of living.”
Ms Reeves is grappling with weak economic growth, persistent inflation and an expected downgrade to official productivity forecasts as she prepares her statement.
Former Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane said the “fiscal fandango” of the past months had caused “paralysis” among businesses and consumers.
He told the BBC on Sunday: “Next week, we need a decisive action that puts to bed and beyond reproach any notion of further tax rises.”
Shadow Chancellor Sir Mel Stride told the Sunday Express Ms Reeves should step down if she breaks Labour’s manifesto promise not to taxes on “working people”.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, writing in The Sun On Sunday, said the Budget “looks set to hammer pensioners, savers, homeowners, small business owners and working people”.
An extension of the freeze on income tax thresholds is among rumoured measures. Such a move would see more people dragged into paying tax for the first time or shifted into a higher rate as their wages go up.
Keeping National Insurance and income tax thresholds frozen for two further years until April 2030 would raise around £8.3 billion a year by 2029-30, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Ms Reeves is also expected to scrap the two-child benefit cap, in a move that could cost more than £3 billion.
She is set to add £1.3 billion to a grant cutting upfront costs for buyers of electric cars, but is also expected to hit them with a pay-per-mile scheme.
And some £48 million for 350 new planners to boost Government efforts to build 1.5 million new homes is reportedly to come.
A Treasury source said the Chancellor is also expected to announce all care leavers would be guaranteed full student loan support, worth up to £13,500 per person.
Other measures expected include £5million for secondary schools to buy more books for their libraries, an £18m scheme to revamp playgrounds in England and a crackdown on shops selling illegal vapes.
