A leading industry group is warning the Government against announcing new business tax rises in next week’s Budget.
The CBI said more taxes on businesses could dampen the UK’s economic recovery.
Director general Tony Danker said the recovery was fragile, warning ministers they were “betting the shop” on private sector investment without doing what it takes to attract it.
He said next week was a “defining moment” for the Government, adding: “We cannot take the economic recovery for granted.
“If the UK is to break out of a decade-plus cycle of anaemic growth and zero productivity, then the Government has to get serious about what it will actually take to deliver that.
“There is a fundamental inconsistency where the Government wants to unlock business investment, but its tax policies do the opposite. You cannot will the ends and ignore the means to turbocharge the economy. Every economist and business leader knows it.
“This is the Government’s first spending review since the pandemic hit and Brexit kicked in. It must choose: Are we going for growth? Or going back to tax and spend?
“Business and Government is united in its ambitions for the country, but it will take more working hand-in-glove to actually achieve them.”
Mr Danker said the Government should not be complacent about growth.
He said: “The Prime Minister calls for a high wage, high skill, high investment, high productivity economy, and he’s totally right.
“But wage growth without productivity growth is a recipe for higher inflation, and tax growth stunts investment.”
Mr Danker said UK taxation was already set to reach its highest sustained level in peacetime.
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