Two of Britain’s best-known bosses have joined a growing list of businesses warning of rising costs to consumers in the aftermath of last week’s budget.
Sir Tim Martin, founder and chairman of Wetherspoons, the no-frills pub chain, has warned that cost inflation has “jumped substantially again” following the chancellor’s £40 billion package of tax increases, a large portion of which will be shouldered by businesses through an increase in employers’ national insurance contributions.
Wetherspoons, which operates almost 800 pubs in the UK and Ireland, said that it expected tax and business costs to rise by about £60 million a year, including an estimated 67 per cent increase in national insurance contributions.
Martin, 69, said that as a result of the substantial rise in costs “all