Next CEO uses Lords status to lodge amendments to NI bill

The CEO of Next, Lord Wolfson, has reportedly used his position in the House of Lords to table amendments aimed at phasing in the upcoming changes to employers’ national insurance contributions, The Times has reported.The measures outlined in the budget will see employers’ national insurance contributions rise from 13.2% to 15% from April, while the secondary threshold at which employers begin to pay national insurance will fall to £5,000 a year, down from £9,100 a year.

Wolfson is supporting the phasing in of the changes proposed in the budget, however, amid growing concerns over rising business costs and job cuts.

According to the Times, Wolfson, who has been a Conservative peer since 2010, supported Baroness Noakes’s amendments to the bill. 

The proposed amendments have been introduced to enable “a phased introduction of the reductions to the secondary threshold” of national insurance. 

The bill is at the committee stage in the Lords and is due to take effect in April. 

Last December, Morrisons’ CEO called on the government to stagger its “avalanche” of business costs following the latest budget.

Speaking to The Sun, Rami Baitieh urged Labour to consider the costs of National Insurance changes, business rates rises and the increase in minimum wage.

He told the paper that National Insurance changes will alone cost Morrisons around £75m.

Tesco also warned it would see an increase of £1bn in its national insurance bill over the next four years following Labour’s Autumn budget,

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has increased Employers’ National Insurance contributions in a bid to help raise as much as £40bn in taxes, pledging to also boost long-term growth and “mark an end to short term-ism” as part of Labour’s first budget since it came into power.