Rishi Sunak vows to cut taxes for business to tackle cost of living crisis
Rishi Sunak has vowed he will cut taxes for business in the autumn budget, as the Treasury weighs up interventions to tackle the cost of living.
The chancellor will make a speech at the CBI dinner that comes after UK inflation soared to 9% – the highest level for more than 40 years. The jump has been fuelled by the rising cost of gas and electricity, which has pushed household energy bills to record levels.
During the speech on Wednesday night, he will urge investment in innovation to grow the economy and say the government will cut taxes to enable business to do so.
“We need you to invest more, train more and innovate more,” the chancellor will say. “In the autumn budget we will cut your taxes to encourage you to do all those things. That is the path to higher productivity, higher living standards and a more prosperous and secure future.”
The chancellor is expected to say that the government will act to tackle inflation as well as supporting people into better paid jobs, setting out a three-point plan on the cost of living, boosting growth and investment.
Options under consideration include a 1p income tax cut from the autumn or a potential VAT cut, but new measures to help with the cost-of-living could come sooner, including an increase in the warm homes discount for the poorest families.
In his speech, Sunak will say he sees the government’s key role as cutting costs for families. “I cannot pretend this will be easy. As I told the House of Commons yesterday: there is no measure any government could take, no law we could pass, that can make these global forces disappear overnight. The next few months will be tough,” he will say.
Sunak is expected to reference the fuel duty cut, council tax discounts and the change to the
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