Chancellor Rishi Sunak has vowed to cut taxes for businesses in his autumn budget as the Treasury continues to debate the interventions to alleviate the cost of living crisis.
Sunak told business leaders on 18 May during the CBI dinner that they should “never, ever doubt we are on your side”.
His speech also called for more investment and innovation to support economic recovery – and that the government will cut business taxes to encourage said growth.
READ MORE: Usdaw urges Chancellor to tackle 9% RPI
“We need you to invest more, train more and innovate more,” the chancellor announced.
“In the autumn budget we will cut your taxes to encourage you to do all those things. That is the path to higher productivity, higher living standards and a more prosperous and secure future.”
The announcement follows data released by the ONS, revealing inflation has hit a 40 year high reaching 9%.
As a result, the Chancellor also addressed how the government is tackling inflation by setting out a “three-point plan” on the cost of living, to boost growth and investment.
However, this follows criticism of Boris Johnson where Labour leader Keir Starmer asked the prime minister during PMQs how he was planning help hard-pressed consumers.
Backing Labour’s calls for a windfall tax has also been Usdaw. The trade union has called for the government to announce an emergency budget that includes, levying windfall tax on the ‘huge profits’ of North Sea oil and gas producers to increase social security and Universal Credit in line with inflation.
Despite this, Conservative MPs voted against Labour’s call for enacting a windfall tax.
Instead, Sunak stated that the government cannot wholly offset sharp increases in prices, which have driven up the prices of food.
“I cannot pretend this will be easy. As I told the House of Commons yesterday: there is no measure any government could take, no law we could pass, that can make these global forces disappear overnight. The next few months will be tough,” Sunak said.
