UK Budget Draws Mixed Reaction from Business, Property and Global Mobility Leaders

It was a mixed bag budget with very little substance of encouragement for UK investment. Read reactions on impact on the global mobility market with nothing to really boost UK inward investment and draw investors and the expatriate market to choose the UK for their next moves.

UK Enterprise

Make UK Chief Executive Stephen Phipson CBE said:“We said this Budget was the first real test of the Government’s pledge to reindustrialise Britain. Today they failed to address the one issue that would enable this – high industrial energy costs. “Our industrial electricity costs are the highest in the world. As I told the Chancellor last week, this is having a ruinous effect on investment and requires urgent action. It is hugely disappointing that he didn’t listen to a sector that supports 2.6m jobs and accounts for 42% of UK exports.“Likewise, while we welcome the slowing down of increases in the minimum wage, in general employing people remains more expensive and riskier thanks to the Employment Rights Act and higher employer NICs. “This Budget has failed to address any of the fundamental costs holding back investment and growth in manufacturing. “We will continue to push the government to make reindustrialisation an economic reality rather than an empty political slogan.”Read in full: https://www.makeuk.org/news-and-events/news/autumn-budget-2026-make-uk-responds

University response

The National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB) gives cautious welcome to budget announcement with reservations around implications for programmes not included in the previously announced £1bn UKRI cluster commitment.Rosalind Gill, Director of Policy, Analysis and External Affairs at NCUB, said: “The significance of this Budget lies not just in individual announcements, but in how they could work together to change the way the UK drives growth. Fiscal devolution, innovation clusters, scale-up finance, procurement and talent measures all address different parts of the same challenge: turning the UK's existing research and innovation strengths into unlocked investment, meaningful economic growth, a globally competitive edge and prosperity that reaches everyone. “Giving local leaders greater control and a direct financial stake in economic growth creates an opportunity to connect research and innovation with skills, infrastructure and business finance around the strengths of each place. Universities and businesses must be involved in shaping these priorities from the outset. Their research, talent, expertise and investment are fundamental to building competitive industries and ensuring innovation translates into economic impact.“Devolution must strengthen the UK's innovation economy, not fragment it. Research strengths, supply chains and labour markets cross regional boundaries, and the UK's ability to compete internationally depends on connecting capabilities across the country. Greater local discretion must go hand in hand with strong national research and innovation capabilities, sustained investment and collaboration between places.“The UK Government must also be clear about the funding behind its ambitions. The £1bn commitment to innovation clusters reprioritises existing research funding, so it is important to understand what this means for other priorities and how the underlying research base will be sustained. The test of the Budget will be whether it changes behaviour and delivers results: more business investment, more technologies reaching customers, more innovative firms scaling in the UK, and better-paid careers across the country.“We also welcome the decision to retain a two-year Graduate visa for eligible graduates, which can help maintain the UK's attractiveness to international students and the talent they bring to the workforce. However, eligibility criteria and wider changes to visa and salary requirements, including the removal of the PhD salary discount, will need careful consideration to understand their combined impact on universities' and businesses' ability to attract the graduates and researchers they need.”

HR Perspective for SMES

A useful summary relating to SMES from HR perspective HR departmentNeil Carberry, Chief Executive of the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, said: “Overall, employers will be pleased that there were no big, unwelcome surprises in today's Budget, which will go some way to underpinning confidence in the economy. But there is much more to do to get the economy firing in a way that will help close the fiscal gap.  “The Chancellor showed that he understands the importance of employers and entrepreneurship in our economy – but that sentiment has to extend to all areas of Government activity. Many organisations are still recovering from a wall of Government-imposed costs they have had to absorb – or will have to in the next few months.  “The intentions outlined in this Budget also highlight the very real tensions at the heart of the Government's growth strategy. Policies on skills, AI and other job measures are seen in isolation and unrelated to decisions on employment taxes and regulation which too often pull in the opposite direction.  “We need the government to do the hard work and join the dots on some of the most pressing issues facing employers today. Without a joined-up approach, any measures announced today, will struggle to have the impact Government wants, and that employers and individuals need.  CIPD urges government to work with employers“The Chancellor's pledge to give businesses breathing space by cutting red tape and providing support on energy costs and business rates will ring hollow for many employers as they brace themselves for the next wave of new employment regulation coming into force over the next year. “Too much is being done to employers rather than with them, and the risks are piling up.” “For example, without sensible compromise, zero hours reforms threaten hundreds of thousands of flexible jobs, particularly for young workers. And union access rules come into force on Friday before the guidance employers need has even been finished, a recipe for costly disputes. We can’t continue like this.  Read the full press release here: https://www.cipd.org/uk/about/press-releases/government-must-join-dots-across-skills-policy-employment-costs-and-ai-for-healey-pro-business-promise-cipd/

Farming and food security

Autumn Budget 2026 – ‘no breathing space for Britain’s food production’, says NFU PresidentNFU President Tom Bradshaw has deemed the Autumn Budget a “massive missed opportunity” in its failure to support British farmers and growers or strengthen the nation’s food security.Government has “failed to act” and has not given farm businesses the ‘breathing space’ that the Chancellor said this Budget was for.Read the NFU’s road to the Budget 2026.

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