UK Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs message to the PM: “Stop the Creep of Taxes on Wealth Creators”

For businesses looking to grow, invest and create jobs, the cost of doing business is an increasingly important consideration. Rising taxes, changes to business incentives and reductions in entrepreneurial relief can all influence decisions about investment, expansion and succession – particularly for ambitious scale-up companies looking to take their next step.

It is against this backdrop that Helm has launched its ‘Stop the Creep’ campaign, calling for greater consideration of the cumulative impact of tax increases and changes to entrepreneurial relief on businesses and business owners.

As part of the campaign, an open letter has been sent to the Prime Minister calling for a review of the current direction of travel and its potential impact on entrepreneurship, investment and business growth.

The campaign is not simply about the headline rate of individual taxes. For businesses, the wider plea is that the UK secures an environment in which entrepreneurs are encouraged to invest, take risks, grow successful companies and reinvest their returns into future growth.

With scale-up businesses playing an important role in generating employment, investment and economic activity, the campaign raises a wider business question: at what point does the cumulative impact of increasing costs and reduced incentives begin to influence decisions about whether, where and how businesses grow?

Supporters and drivers of the campaign include former CEO of Marks & Spencer Lord Stuart Rose, John Caudwell who founded Phones4U, the founder of exclusive fashion empire Boden, the CEO OF Reiss – a total of 161 business leaders and political representatives – including serving MPs – who co-signed the letter as copied below: 

Sir,

Britain’s founders spend years taking risks, working all hours, forgoing salaries and creating jobs in the hope of one day creating a company that can pay for their retirement.

The odds are stacked against them.

Only four out of every 10 businesses in the UK sees their fifth birthday. And while most business owners dream of one day selling their business and retiring on the proceeds vanishingly few ever do.

There are five million registered companies in the UK, yet just 1,400 sold for more than £1m in 2024 according to the Office for National Statistics.

Yet the reward for the years of sacrifice for those few who make it to a big ticket sale is a tax bill that has nearly doubled in the last two years.

The last Chancellor told people she wanted to make the United Kingdom the most attractive place in the world for founders to start and scale a business. Yet the relentless creep of taxes on founders suggests otherwise. Employers National Insurance and Capital Gains Tax on dividends are up, Business Asset Disposal Relief, Business Property Relief and Agricultural Property Relief are all down. It is death by a thousand cuts.

And while Britain tightens the screws on its wealth creators, competing nations are rolling out the red carpet. The United States offers zero tax on the first $10 million of a company sale. Cyprus, Portugal, the UAE and Singapore are all wooing Britain’s founders with low-tax regimes and pro-growth regulations.

The Government’s own advisers warned Britain risks becoming an incubator economy, world-class at creating businesses, unable to keep them.However, all is not lost. We believe Britain remains one of the most entrepreneurial and dynamic countries on Earth. Andy Burnham has promised a pro-business government. Act now, and he can keep that promise, and Britain’s scale-up founders. Fail, and Britain will continue training entrepreneurs for export.

This is why the Stop the Creep campaign is calling on the Chancellor to stop the corrosive tax rises on Britain’s businesses.

Signed. 

‘Stop the Creep’ follows on from Vat’s the Problem campaign instigated by award winning chef Tom Kerridge in June earlier this year. The Vat’s the Problem campaign in support of the hospitality industry and backed by Stockport’s Robinsons Brewery called for the Government to lower VAT for the hospitality sector to 10% by printing the messaging on the back of five of their lorries.

The Government introduced a temporary 5% VAT rate for specific children’s meals and family admissions from 25 June to 1 September 2026.

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