Sir Martin Sorrell has joined a list of entrepreneurs warning the Government ‘not to stifle or constrain’ aspiring business founders on the eve of the Budget.
In an open letter, several business leaders including the media tycoon – founder and former boss of media conglomerate WPP – said while the UK ‘has a proud tradition of entrepreneurship’, this was being undermined by escalating costs following tax raids in last year's Budget.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ decision to hike costs for employers, including National Insurance Contributions, as well as increases in the rates of capital gains tax and the fear of a separate wealth tax, has sparked an exodus of prominent business leaders from the UK in recent months.
In October, Nik Storonsky, the billionaire founder of finance app Revolut, moved his residency from Britain to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
And last week Herman Narula, head of tech firm Improbable and the richest self-made British entrepreneur under 40, also announced he was going to the UAE after reports Reeves was considering setting up an ‘exit tax’ for wealthy individuals moving abroad – although she later abandoned the idea.
In the letter, the business bosses said the exodus of entrepreneurs was ‘alarming’ and called on the Government to be more favourable in this year’s Budget.
It also noted that the UK ranked 23rd in the world as the best place to start a business – the sixth year in a row outside the top 20.
‘We need to empower the energy and dynamism of entrepreneurs, not stifle or constrain them,’ it said.
Alongside Sorrell, who heads up media firm S4 Capital, the letter’s signatories included Nick Wheeler, founder of clothing chain Charles Tyrwhitt, John Roberts, the boss of white goods retailer AO World and Steve
Rigby, the head of investment firm Rigby Group. Their intervention, which comes as the founders gather for the UK’s
Global Entrepreneurship Week tomorrow, joins a growing chorus of business leaders calling on the Chancellor not to hit them with even more taxes in her Budget later this month.
In October, a group representing the UK’s retail and hospitality sectors warned that as many as 120,000 jobs could disappear if the Chancellor followed through on plans to hike property taxes on larger shops, pubs and hotels
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