Alex brings local businesses together to challenge the Minister over "unfair jobs tax"

Alex Brewer MP brought together business owners from salons, garages, pubs and care homes across North East Hampshire to urge the Minister in Parliament to reverse the rise in employer National Insurance Contributions.

Since April 2025, the increase has hit an estimated 940,000 employers, costing them an average of £26,000 a year, with labour intensive small businesses hit hardest. It is expected to cost hospitality £1 billion and England's independent social care sector £940 million a year, while also making it harder for businesses such as motor repairs and hair and beauty salons to hire apprentices.

Ms Brewer heard directly from local businesses about pubs being rescued from closure, care homes shedding staff, and garages and salons struggling to survive. She told the Minister this triple hit of higher employer NICs, soaring energy costs and rising business rates is making it harder for businesses to employ people, at exactly the moment they should be encouraged to hire and invest.

Alex Brewer MP said:

"Small businesses are the engine-room of the UK’s economy, but Government measures over successive years are putting on the breaks in already difficult times. The country has faced stagnant economic growth for too long and this tax is only making things worse.

“Small businesses have very few mechanisms to make the numbers add up. They can pass the costs onto workers through stagnant wages, or onto customers through higher prices, but both harm the economy in a cost-of-living crisis the Government claims to want to address. And when the numbers don’t add up, the costs fall onto communities through weaker local economies and hollowed out high streets.

"Small businesses in North East Hampshire cannot go on absorbing endless cost increases. The Government needs to give them the certainty they need to invest, grow, create jobs and thrive."