Every day, CBI members tell us they want to invest, hire, innovate and grow. But too often, rising business costs are making those decisions harder.
Businesses do not experience energy prices, employment costs and taxation in isolation. They experience their cumulative impact, with every additional cost reducing the headroom available to invest and grow.
Through conversations with members across the UK, and the businesses represented through our councils and committees, we have heard what is getting in the way of growth. Our submission turns those conversations into six clear asks of the Chancellor: three immediate priorities to give the headroom for growth, and three focused on longer term impact.
Six priorities for unlocking growth
Cut business electricity costs
Make it easier to create junior and entry-level jobs
Reform business rates
Make government delivery investable
Mobilise private capital for national and local renewal
Turn the UK's AI strengths into economy-wide productivity
Three immediate priorities to give the breathing space for growth
1 Give businesses room to invest: cut electricity costs
For businesses across the economy, the UK's high electricity costs have become a competitiveness problem.
Industrial electricity prices are 36% above European averages and 45% above G7 averages. And this isn't only an issue for energy-intensive industry. High electricity costs affect manufacturers, retailers, hospitality businesses, logistics firms, food producers, data centres and businesses throughout their supply chains.
Members have been clear about what that means in practice. Money spent absorbing higher energy bills is money that cannot be invested elsewhere. It can make the difference between an investment going ahead or being delayed, between expanding capacity or standing still, and between taking on another employee or deciding the numbers simply do not add up.
We are calling on the government to remove Renewables Obligation and Feed-in Tariff costs from all non-domestic electricity bills, alongside the electricity element of the Climate Change Levy, from April 2027.
CBI and Energy UK modelling shows the potential prize. Between 2027/28 and 2030/31, the package could support £7.3bn of additional economic activity and £4.2bn of additional private-sector investment, as well as generating £2.7bn in additional tax revenue through stronger economic activity.
This would provide immediate breathing room while helping address a much bigger challenge: making the UK a more competitive place to invest, manufacture and electrify.
2 Give more people a first step into work: reduce the cost of hiring
Businesses tell us they want to create opportunities. But the economics of doing so have become increasingly difficult.
Employer NICs increased by 28% in 2025/26, overtaking Corporation Tax as the largest single source of business tax revenue. Businesses responding to higher Employer NICs have reported reducing recruitment, cutting headcount, raising prices and reducing investment.
That pressure is particularly acute for part-time, lower-paid and entry-level jobs.
More than one million 16 to 24-year-olds are now not in education, employment or training, while vacancies have fallen to post-pandemic lows. Tackling youth unemployment therefore cannot only be about preparing young people for work. There need to be jobs for them to move into.
We are calling for a reduction in Employer NICs, with a £1,000 increase in the secondary threshold from £5,000 to £6,000 as our preferred cross-economy starting point.
This would put proportionately more support behind lower-paid and entry-level roles. CBI analysis estimates it could support an increase of around 41,000 jobs, alongside a £3.4bn annual increase in GVA.
And the benefit extends beyond young people. Junior roles provide routes into employment for returners, career changers, people moving from welfare into work and those looking to increase their hours.
If we want more people participating in the economy, businesses need the confidence and financial headroom to employ them.
3 Stop taxing businesses for investing: reform business rates
Members have repeatedly told us that the business rates system can work against the very investment government wants to encourage.
Improve a property, refurbish a site or expand a premises and the result can be a higher rateable value and a bigger tax bill. Reform is needed to a system where an extra £1 on your property valuation can land you a bill increase of up to £39,000.
Our survey evidence found 32% of businesses said rates had played a major role in cancelled, reduced or delayed property investment.
We want the government to tackle the most damaging cliff edges now, strengthen investment reliefs and set a clear path towards a banded slice system over the course of this Parliament.
This Budget can make an immediate start through taper relief, stronger Improvement Relief and Empty Property Relief, and greater transparency and predictability around valuations and multipliers. At the same time, the government should publish a clear roadmap for moving from today's slab structure towards a banded slice system, so businesses are not hit with arbitrary jumps in their tax bill simply because they invest and grow.
CBI analysis estimates that moving to a banded marginal system could ultimately increase business investment by around £3.6bn in the long term.
Three asks to accelerate growth in the long-term
1 Make government delivery investable
For businesses, a good policy on paper only matters if the system behind it can deliver.
Across planning, regulation, procurement, trade and infrastructure, members tell us that slow decisions, unclear ownership and repeated hand-offs between different parts of government can hold up investment. Delay has a real commercial cost. An investment that works with a decision in six months may no longer stack up after an uncertain 18-month process.
We are calling on the government to pilot a new Growth Delivery Framework across priority business-facing departments, regulators and delivery bodies.
That means clear service standards and timescales, named people accountable for decisions, straightforward escalation routes when projects get stuck, and greater use of parallel processing and fast-track routes. The aim is simple: give businesses greater certainty about when decisions will be made so they can invest with confidence.
2 Mobilise private capital for national and local renewal
Investors need credible pipelines, clear revenue models, sensible allocation of risk and confidence that projects will actually be delivered. When pipelines stop and start, requirements change or risks sit with organisations least able to control or bear them, investment becomes more expensive or capital stays on the sidelines.
We are calling for a modern public-private partnership roadmap that can help turn more national and local priorities into investable opportunities.
That should include a central centre of excellence to build commercial capability, better coordination between public financial institutions and stronger national and mayoral investment pipelines. Giving devolved leaders greater funding certainty and the tools to develop credible investment propositions can help crowd private capital into infrastructure, housing and regeneration across the UK.
3 Turn the UK's AI strengths into economy-wide productivity
The UK has considerable strengths in research and invention. The next challenge is making sure businesses across the economy can benefit from them at scale. Fewer than half of businesses surveyed by the CBI believe they are investing optimally in innovation. AI is the clearest current example.
Many firms are struggling to move from experimenting with AI to deploying it at scale. Members face practical questions about capturning value, how to navigate fragmented support, remain compliant, and build theright skills and pathways. Nationally there are questions aboutdelivering the power, connectivity, data and compute needed to support these technologies.
We are calling on the government to establish a time-limited Business AI Adoption Delivery Group feeding into the PM’s AI adoption Taskforce, bringing business and government together to accelerate practical adoption across the economy.
Its focus should be to prioritise practical recommendations, align existing initiatives and oversee delivery through a shared roadmap and scorecard to catalyse trusted AI adoption at scale and pace. The opportunity is to connect the UK's strength in developing new technology into higher productivity in businesses of every size and sector.
Your voice in the room
This submission is the result of listening to businesses across sectors, regions and nations, and puts forward fully-costed recommendations that considers the difficult fiscal backdrop. That is why it combines targeted fiscal interventions with structural reforms and comparatively low-cost changes to the way government operates. It also calls on the government to avoid further increases in business, employment and capital taxes that would weaken incentives to invest.
Member input is already creating real impact for business. Already this year, member priorities have helped secure changes to Employment Rights Act proposals, seen nine CBI asks included in the EU-UK Common Understanding, and realised progress on reducing electricity costs for eligible manufacturers. Our Budget campaign is the next opportunity to turn business challenges into change.
Ahead of the Budget, our test for the Chancellor is straightforward: does each major Budget decision make it easier for firms to invest, hire, innovate and grow across the UK?