Greggs issues warning to customers after Labour's tax raid announced in Budget

James Rodger
·2-min read
Greggs issues warning to customers after Labour's tax raid announced in Budget
-Credit: (Image: Reach Publishing Services Limited)


A Greggs boss has warned over price rises after the Labour Party government's Budget tax raid. Chief executive Roisin Currie said the measures rolled out in the Autumn Statement and the Budget would put pressure on prices for customers.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said during her Budget she would raise employers' National Insurance contributions (NICs). She also announced a reduction to the threshold at which businesses start paying NI contributions from £9,100 to £5,000.

Ms Currie said the Labour government's tax-raising Budget would not halt plans for growth. She said: "Our shop growth plan, our supply chain investment, none of that changes. We are still absolutely going for growth."

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"Our shop growth plan, our supply chain investment, none of that changes. We are still absolutely going for growth," Currie said in an interview at Greggs' headquarters in Newcastle, northeast England. Greggs, which has more stores than McDonald's in the UK, will open up to 160 net new shops in 2024, with a focus on outlets at petrol forecourts, retail parks and transport sites.

Investment in two new supply chain sites in central England, due to open in late 2026 and early 2027, will mean Greggs can support a store estate of around 3,500. Rain Newton-Smith, chief executive of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), said the measures announced last month have made it harder for businesses to “take a chance” on hiring new people. She also criticised the changes to inheritance tax relief for farmers, saying it had left them “fearful” about the future.

She said: “The rise in national insurance, the stark lowering of the threshold, caught us all off guard. Along with the expansion and the rise of the national living wage – which everyone wants to accommodate – and the potential cost of the Employment Rights Bill, they put a heavy burden on business.”

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