{
  "id": 9432700,
  "title": "Healey urged to cut business costs as consumer confidence slips",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/23/healey-urged-to-cut-business-costs-as-consumer-confidence-slips",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-09-23T23:01:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "City AM",
    "slug": "city-am",
    "url": "https://www.cityam.com/healey-urged-to-cut-business-costs-as-consumer-confidence-slips/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Retailers are urging Chancellor John Healey to reduce the \"unduly high\" costs of running businesses ahead of the upcoming Budget. The British Retail Consortium, representing major retailers such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Marks and Spencer, has highlighted the \"triple threat\" of high business rates, increased employment costs, and rising energy bills. A recent survey found that consumer confidence dropped for the first time in four months in September, due to fears over inflation and government debt. Nearly half of Brits now anticipate the economy to deteriorate in the next three months, up from 44% in August. Over a third of consumers believe their financial situation will worsen in the near future, up from 28% last month.\n\nHelen Dickinson, CEO of the BRC, advocates for Healey to prioritize reducing living costs in his first budget, stating, \"Consumers want to see the government prioritize bringing down the cost of living.\" She specifically calls for Healey to freeze the business rates multiplier to prevent another tax increase on retailers, allowing them to focus on keeping prices down. Retailers have expressed concern that the government may raise business rates for large shops and warehouses to lower taxes for smaller high street firms, which could have a detrimental impact on the British high streets the government aims to protect.\n\nPrivate sector growth in the UK economy slowed to a three-month low in September, according to the S&P Global PMI index. The index dropped from 52.5 in August to 51.7 in September, indicating sluggish growth in the UK's manufacturing and services sectors. S&P Global's chief business economist, Chris Williamson, believes this data suggests the economy is growing at a mere 0.1% rate each quarter. Williamson warns that the combination of slow economic growth, rising inflation, subdued business confidence, and high costs are discouraging hiring. The manufacturing sector has reached its slowest growth rate since April, while service firms attribute their stagnation to \"subdued domestic economic conditions and ongoing geopolitical uncertainty.\" Williamson emphasizes that growth, business confidence, and employment are being hindered by high energy prices, elevated business costs, geopolitical worries, higher market borrowing costs, and uncertainty over government policy in the lead-up to the autumn Budget.",
  "summary": "Retailers have called on John Healey to slash the “burdensome” costs of doing business at the Budget next month, warning that consumer confidence will continue to stumble without urgent action. The British Retail Consortium (BRC), which represents top retailers like Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Marks and Spencer, has urged the Chancellor to tackle the “triple blow” [...]",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}