A businessman has revealed how he’s been “clobbered” by Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ economic policies.
He also fears that £50,000 will added to his running costs due to measure announced in the Budget last October.
Hotel and pub owner Nick Evans looked visibly moved as he spoke about running his firm under Labour with journalist Camilla Tominey on GB News on Sunday.
During her October Budget, Ms Reeves announced plans to increase the rate that employers pay in contributions from 13.8% to 15% on a worker’s earnings from April, on earnings over £175 per week.
The threshold at which employers start paying the tax on each employee’s salary will be reduced from £9,100 per year to £5,000.
Mr Evans said Ms Reeves had “clobbered” him with £50,000 extra in costs across his businesses.
Speaking about National Insurance, he explained: “Every single person I employ will cost £615 more, I employ 33 people currently, some full-time, some part-time, and that’s quite a considerable increase.
“Some of my part timers might be doing 20-hours a week and they would be earning £12,000-£14,000 a year. They suddenly cost me another £615, excluding the 1.2 per cent extra to go from 13.8 to 15 per cent, it’s somewhat unreasonable.”
Mr Evans said it was increasingly looking like it would be “really hard” to employ people under Labour, and that his firm was “bracing ourselves” for when the Budget announcements came into force.
The hotelier who employs 33 people, added: “We’ve already made adjustments to the number of people we have, I’ve lost a really, really valuable member of staff which I had to let go.
“I had to let my head of HR go and do that all myself. I was quite experienced anyway from my previous role but that was quite frustrating.”
Mr Evans also revealed energy costs were hammering his turnover, his hotel alone faces annual energy costs of over £100,000, while his two pubs each require around £50,000 for power. At one point, he was paying 75p per kilowatt for electricity.
He said: “I started this because I thought it would be quite fun and it would be good to start a family business but I am yet to turn a profit in the five years I’ve been doing this.”
