Gordon Brown likes to take one of his Scottish hands, and use it to pat himself on his back. The UK economy is a flying success, he proclaims, and no doubt hopes he will be remembered as the greatest chancellor ever. But not everyone is in awe of this track record. Newspapers such as the Business or Telegraph engage in anti-Brown rhetoric even more often than Mr Brown praises his management of the economy. Their big gripe is with taxation and red tape. They say Mr Brown has created an economy that is seeing enterprise threatened by an ever more complex tax regime.
Now the CBI has joined the ranks of the government’s most vociferous critics. (A tad embarrassing perhaps, as Mr Brown will be attending the CBI conference this week).
The employers’ organisation has been surveying its members, and found that 10 percent of companies who responded to its questionnaire said they were considering moving their headquarters abroad and that seven in 10 companies believe the UK has become a poorer destination for business since 2001.
The CBI’s director general, Richard Lambert, said:” High business taxes are not a way of making ‘fat cats’ squeal. They are a burden carried by the whole of society…It is important to be absolutely clear about who pays for high business taxes. They fall on consumers, in the form of higher prices. They fall on shareholders, large numbers of whom represent the interests of pensioners and savers. And they fall on the workforce, in the form of fewer jobs, squeezed wages, and lower business investment.”
The CBI wants Corporation Tax cut from 30 percent to 25 percent, and for National Insurance contributions to be cut.
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