£25bn tax rise needed to avoid austerity

Plus, businesses given leeway to increase exec pay, how private equity ate Britain and Wimbledon says goodbye to line judges

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves leave after an interview at the London Stock Exchange

(Image: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

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Business Agenda

A summary of the most important business news

1. The government is reportedly considering increasing employer national insurance contributions in a move that experts say could raise as much as £17bn. The change would see the introduction of national insurance on employer pension contributions. The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates Reeves needs a £25bn tax rise to avoid austerity. You can read more here and here.

2. Unilever has sold its Russian business to Arnest Group as it looks to exit from the company. The deal includes all its Russian business, as well as four factories in the country and its business in Belarus. Unilever’s continued presence in Russia after it invaded Ukraine has been criticised by campaigners and the Ukrainian government. You can read more here.

3. The Investment Association has “simplified” its remuneration guidelines so companies can set pay policies that “suit their specific needs”. The move by the trade body which represents 250 large investors that hold stakes in UK-listed companies, comes after business figures called for higher executive pay in the UK to encourage companies to stay listed on the London Stock Exchange. You can read more here.

4. The UK’s economic activity is 36 per cent lower than it would have been had it continued to grow in line with the growth trend before the financial crisis, according to Citi’s analysis. That is worse than the Euro area, at 31 per cent, and the US at 24 per cent. The gap in relative performance has also widened since the pandemic, with GDP in the UK 6.1 per cent short of its pre-Covid trajectory, compared to 4.3 per cent in the Euro area. Read the full report here.

5. Wimbledon is to replace its line judges with electronic line calling from next year’s championship in a move it says will make decisions more accurate. The move means the French Open is now the only major still to use line judges. “Having reviewed the results of the testing undertaken at The Championships this year, we consider the technology to be sufficiently robust and the time is right to take this important step in seeking maximum accuracy in our officiating,” says Sally Bolton, chief executive of the All England Club. You can read more here.

Business Question

Guess the year

1 in 10 companies set up this year went into liquidation
The mobile network BT Cellnet changes its name to O2
TDR Capital, Loungers and Skyscanner were founded in this year
BBC 6 Music, the first new BBC Radio station in decades, is launched
Euro banknotes and coins become legal tender in twelve of the European Union’s member states

The answer can be found at the bottom of the page.

Business Thinker

Deep dives on business and leadership

By Dougal Shaw

✈️ The ‘experiential’ high street

I was invited yesterday to a preview of the new flagship travel store that the airline Emirates is opening in Kensington, London. It says a lot about the changing face of our high streets.

You can book flights, of course, but only with Emirates. But the main reason for the store is as a destination for customers to experience the brand. Shoppers can take a break from shopping to get a taste of first-class and business travel. I had lunch at a mock-up of The Lounge, which you would experience if you went on the top deck of an A380 flight. You can also try out premium economy seats and a first-class pod.

Whittard of Chelsea has recently opened an experiential store in central London too. It’s part of the post-Covid shopping landscape.

This is Emirates’s first such store in Europe, but it plans to open 40. We’ll be sharing a video about this on Business Leader soon.

🍔 How private equity ate Britain

Sticking with the theme of our changing high streets, this eight-minute video by Bloomberg is worth a watch. It delves into the invisible changes taking place thanks to private equity groups.

It points out that between 2016 and 2023, private-equity companies spent nearly $200bn (£152bn) buying British companies including The Body Shop, Wagamama, Pizza Express, Burger King, Morrisons, Zizzi and New Look.

This means their decisions have a big impact on the lives of British people. A staggering 1.9 million people in Britain are employed by companies owned by private equity groups, it points out.

Business Quote

Inspiration from leaders

“Leadership is the capacity to translate a vision into reality.”

– Warren Bennis

Business Leader

The best of our content

Artificial Intelligence text woman — (Image: Laurence Dutton)

Artificial inclusion: How AI is reshaping the workplace

As AI and automation continue to develop, they are poised to drastically reshape the global workforce, impacting up to 300 million jobs according to a Goldman Sachs report.

While these technologies promise increased productivity, they also risk compounding existing inequalities, particularly for women, who are more likely to hold jobs vulnerable to automation.

Zara Nanu explores how occupational segregation and uneven access to education could exacerbate gender disparities. You can read the full article here.

And finally…

Shane Gross wins the grand prize and the 'Wetlands The Bigger Picture' category — Shane Gross wins the grand prize and the ‘Wetlands The Bigger Picture’ category (Image: Shane Gross)

A photograph of wriggling tadpoles has won this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year award. The picture was taken by Shane Gross in Cedar Lake, Canada, with jury chair Kathy Moran praising it for highlighting “environments and species that are often overlooked”.

The winning photographs all are worth looking through, from crime scene investigators at the Metropolitan Police dusting a confiscated tusk at Heathrow Airport for fingerprints, to freshwater dolphins swimming in the Amazon.

The BBC has details on all the winners here. And the annual exhibition opens at the Natural History Museum in London on Friday.

The answer to today’s Business Question is 2002