Rising costs are damaging business investment and undermining the government’s efforts to raise living standards, the CBI has warned the chancellor, John Healey, ahead of his first major economic speech and the budget on 28 October.
In a 75-page report drawing on cross-sector surveys and evidence from trade associations, the industry confederation said businesses paid almost £345bn in taxes in 2025-26. That was 12.7 per cent higher than the previous year and represented 31.3 per cent of all UK tax receipts.
Employer national insurance contributions, which were increased in the Labour government’s first budget in 2024, rose to £123.1bn in 2025-26, according to the CBI’s analysis of business tax contributions. That was a 28 per cent increase year-on-year and meant the levy overtook corporation tax as the largest single source of business tax revenue.
The report also found that UK non-domestic electricity prices were about 45 per cent above the median of G7 countries in 2023 and 2024.
The CBI called on the government’s new cost of living taskforce to prioritise cutting business costs. Rain Newton-Smith, the CBI’s chief executive, said Andy Burnham was right to put the cost of living at the heart of his new government but warned that “business costs are kitchen-table costs too”.
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