Post-budget ‘paints a mixed picture’ for the Labour government, says Savanta

Three in five (62%) UK small business leaders say that the Budget did not contain enough measures to “support businesses like mine,” according to new research from Savanta ahead of Small Business Saturday.

Just one in ten (11%) say the budget did contain enough measures to support businesses like theirs, with one in five (22%) neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

Savanta’s monthly business tracker of 1,000 business decision makers suggests a mixed response to the Autumn Statement, with over half (54%) saying that employer national insurance (NI) increases introduced in the Autumn Statement “hurts businesses like mine”.

One in five (22%) business leaders say the NI rise didn’t hurt their business, with the same proportion (22%) neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

More positively for Labour, four in ten (39%) say the budget will improve the outlook for their businesses personally, rising to six in ten (60%) of medium and large companies of 250 plus employees. Three in ten (31%) of all business leaders say the budget will worsen their company’s outlook, while 27% say it won’t make any difference.

Just under half (46%) of business leaders also say Labour had “no choice but to raise taxes significantly” because of the economic inheritance the Conservatives left them, a 14-point lead over those who say they disagree (32%).

More broadly, business leaders are split evenly between those who say the Autumn Statement will improve (40%) the UK economy, and those who say it will worsen (42%) as a consequence of the budget.

Matt McGinn, Consultant at Savanta said, “Our first business tracker post-budget paints a mixed picture for the Labour government.

“On one hand, a majority of business leaders say the employer NI increase hurts them and that the budget didn’t contain enough measures to support them. No business is going to respond positively to additional taxation and our research bears this out.”

On the other hand, there is a definite sense Labour have got a difficult economic hand from the Conservatives, and larger employers in particular are more optimistic about the outlook for their businesses as a consequence of the budget.

“Overall, there is a much more nuanced picture of business reaction to Rachel Reeves’ budget than suggested by her opponents.