How John Healey can deliver a successful Budget for Yorkshire businesses: Kim Johnston
Whenever I speak to businesses across Yorkshire, they provide familiar but important stories about what they are experiencing on the ground.
Our companies are still investing, still innovating and still looking ahead, even as they face challenges. The question now is whether the upcoming Budget will give businesses the breathing space they need to turn that resilience into growth.
Recent business updates across Yorkshire point to real momentum. In Leeds, for example, the visitor economy was worth £3bn in 2025 and the Bank of England has committed to a permanent long-term base in the city. Meanwhile, wider investment in regeneration, innovation, advanced manufacturing, professional services, culture and tourism underlines the region’s economic potential.
Yet the mood is not one of unqualified optimism and costs continue to squeeze firms. Amid renewed concern about inflation, the Bank of England’s held the interest rate at 3.75 per cent, but the split vote, with three members favouring an increase, suggested that rate cuts are not imminent. For many businesses, that means borrowing costs will remain a live pressure and investment decisions will be scrutinised carefully.
The upcoming Budget therefore matters. Businesses do not expect government to remove every risk from the economy, nor should they. They do however need a framework that supports business confidence rather than undermining it. National economic pressures quickly become practical decisions about costs, confidence and capacity, so business costs cannot be viewed in isolation.
And so Chancellor John Healey faces significant challenges as he approaches his first Budget. His ambition to deliver growth and raise living standards across the country should be lauded, but will only be realised if businesses are given the breathing space to invest, hire and grow.
The Budget presents an important opportunity to turn ambition into practical action. Businesses have been burdened by rising costs, higher taxes, regulatory change and persistent uncertainty for far too long. ICAEW members have told us consistently that uncertainty is the biggest obstacle to investment.
For many companies, certainty is as valuable as headline support. Sudden changes in tax policy, delays in administration, or complex compliance requirements can all divert time and resources away from growth. ICAEW members regularly highlight the need for better-designed regulation and improved tax administration, including investment in HMRC service performance, so that viable businesses are not held back by avoidable friction.
ICAEW members see these pressures first-hand. Across Yorkshire, Chartered Accountants are advising businesses on cash flow, costs, investment decisions and risk. Their message is clear: firms can adapt to challenge, but they need clarity, competence and a system that rewards long-term growth.
While geopolitical events are outside the Chancellor’s control, we think the Budget is an opportunity to provide greater certainty to business. In particular, at ICAEW we are calling for a one-year freeze to the business rates multiplier; for the Chancellor to rule out further increases in employment taxes during this parliament to give businesses greater certainty to invest and hire; and for clarification of the definition of “current budget balance” in the fiscal stability rule ahead of the Budget to help avoid market surprises.
We’d also like the government to fix tax administration by prioritising investment within HMRC to improve performance and to expand the Growth Guarantee Scheme to help SMEs invest.
Closer to home, Yorkshire also needs continued investment in infrastructure and place. Our region’s recent pipeline of developments, from Leeds South Bank to transport links and city centre regeneration, demonstrates the scale of opportunity. But there are parts of the market that remain two-speed, and so we see funded projects moving ahead while others stall on viability, and this underlines the importance of patient capital, planning certainty and public- private collaboration.
Of course, opportunity is not limited to Leeds and growth must reach towns, cities and rural communities across Yorkshire and the Humber. Better transport, digital infrastructure, skills investment and a climate that supports innovation will all be essential if the benefits of growth are to be felt in every postcode.
No single Budget can solve every challenge facing the regional economy, but it can send a signal.
For Yorkshire, a successful Budget would protect fiscal credibility without weakening business confidence. Geopolitical events have taken a hammer to business confidence in recent years - breathing space for businesses will enable the conditions for businesses to deliver growth in our region.
Kim Johnston is ICAEW Regional Director