The Chancellor, John Healey, says he wants to back entrepreneurs and ease the pressures on business in next week's Budget. He set out the pitch in an interview with the Times published on Wednesday 21 October.
"I want to be a chancellor who backs business in Britain making a profit, and those entrepreneurs who, in the end, are the ones who challenge the status quo, come up with innovative ideas and are trying, some of them through sheer bloody-mindedness, to keep going through these sorts of pressures."
That is his wording as quoted by LBC. According to London Loves Business, he said he is conscious of cost pressures on firms. These include tax increases brought in by his predecessor Rachel Reeves, regulation, employment law changes and supply-chain disruption. "I'm conscious of that as I go into the budget for both businesses and households," he said.
London Loves Business and Brit Brief report that Reeves raised employer National Insurance from 13.8% to 15%, effective last year.
Bloomberg reports that he plans to cut regulation. No specific business measure was confirmed in the interview. Healey delivers the Budget on Wednesday 28 October.