Business owners say Budget will mean higher prices

Shahram Navard is worried about the impact on customers if he has to increase his prices

The owner of a fish and chip shop feels "put in a corner" following the Labour party's first budget in 14 years.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the budget on Wednesday, with key points including taxes rising by £40bn and an increase in employers' National Insurance contributions from April 2025.

Employers will bear the brunt of the rise in taxes unveiled earlier by Reeves - the biggest increase in a generation - and some Gloucester businesses said they will have to increase prices for customers.

Shahram Navard, owner of Ye Olde Restaurant & Fish Shoppe, said the business had already been struggling with price increases for two years.

Mr Navard told the BBC: "Increasing the National Insurance contribution for the employer and rising minimum wage, all of these together, it would just basically put us in a corner."

Adrian Ball, owner of Kara hair and beauty salon on Southgate Street, estimated the National Insurance changes would cost the business an additional £10,000 to £12,000 a year.

"On top of that, minimum wage changing is another cost which we have to pass on to customers," Mr Ball said.

"Prices will have to go up, so the cost of a haircut will go up."

Adrian Ball said he would have to increase the price of a haircut at his salon to cover rising costs

Meanwhile, Harrison Yorke of Eleven Builders said it is "certainly going to be difficult" for smaller businesses with the minimum wage and tax increases.

"That will transfer into increased prices and that, naturally, has a knock-on effect to the consumer," he said.

"Again, the realities of some of the stuff [Reeves] is saying is driving prices up."