UK founders cast doubt on Burnham’s pro-business push
The majority of Britain’s top scale-up founders believe business conditions will not improve under Andy Burnham as just one in 20 entrepreneurs feel the new PM backs the private sector.
New research by Helm, a membership group of over 400 scale-up founders, suggested that a substantial number of its members were pessimistic about Burnham’s premiership.
The group’s latest membership survey – drawing on founders with a combined revenue of £8bn – suggests that just six per cent consider Burnham to be a pro-business PM.
Around 83 per cent of respondents also said that they expected conditions to either stay the same or worsen. Just under half of these entrepreneurs were pessimistic about what was to come.
Helm’s findings are likely to be the first of several surveys ahead of a late October Budget reflecting worries across the private sector that Burnham may target businesses’ financial gains in his bid to fund multi-billion pound funding pledges.
A separate survey of manufacturers on Monday showed that sentiment levels across the industry had fallen amid fears that tax hikes could hit businesses.
Andreas Adamides, the chief executive of Helm, said the poll showed there was a “trust deficit” in Burnham despite his announcement to cut business rates for pub landlords and “warm words” claiming he would be pro-business.
Adamides said: “He did not impose the tax rises of the last two years, but he owns them now. Reversing the employers’ national insurance rise in his first 100 days would be the clearest possible signal that this government understands who creates growth.
“What business leaders cannot afford is another summer of speculation about wealth taxes and exit charges, because uncertainty stops investment just as surely as tax does.”
Burnham’s pro-business pitch
During the Makerfield by-election campaign, Burnham hinted he would look to address the added business costs from Rachel Reeves’ national insurance hike that damaged the jobs market, hitting youth unemployment in particular.
The tax hike raised around £25bn more in government revenue every year, with any U-turn likely to add to Chancellor John Healey’s list of funding problems.
The Chancellor is heading for a difficult Budget after Burnham made a series of pledges on the cost of living in his bid to provide “breathing space” to both households and businesses.
Healey himself will also be under pressure to set a path to raise defence spending to three per cent of GDP by 2030, costing around £9bn more a year, given he resigned over the issue when Sir Keir Starmer was Prime Minister.
Both the Chancellor and the Prime Minister have asked Cabinet ministers to find savings in their departmental budgets although it is unclear how far cuts will go, with the energy price shock from the Iran war adding to the pinch on public finances. The government is projected to spend more than £110bn in debt interest costs in the current financial year.