By Juliet

The UK government has the thorny task of keeping us out of recession. One of the key proposals for raising the funds needed to cut our staggering national debts is to raise National Insurance by a percentage mark in 2011. This will increase the cost to employ people, because businesses pick up the NI bill. 

It’s unusual for us at Good Energy to wade into politics. But this week, like many business leaders around the country, I feel pretty miffed.

Firstly, the labour reaction to a substantial group of leading businesses’ objection to the NI increase was pretty ill-advised to say the least. To imply that a group who employs over half a million of your workforce naïve can be taken as nothing other than insulting.

So it’s difficult not to react by taking a look at the government’s own employment record and proclaiming: “You first!” Something about this policy that probably wasn’t foreseen is the fresh attention it has brought to the frightening inefficiencies in the government behemoth. Not just opposition, but the current administration itself has bandied about efficiency numbers in the region of £12-15 billion. Any rational voter can’t help but wonder why these measures haven’t been taken already. If the government wants business to make cost-cutting efforts it should lead by example.   

We all know that sacrifices are going to have to be made. But is straining employers and employees really the best way to encourage a recovering economy? As a business leader myself I know that I will find it harder to employ more staff and to reward those already working at Good Energy. Employment will simply be more expensive. Growth will be harder.

There has been a real shift away from encouraging entrepreneurial spirit in this country. From stealth employment costs to dropping the Taper Tax relief system it is becoming gradually harder to start and grow a business.

If one thing has been made clear through the recent economic crisis it’s that we can’t rely on banking and the City to keep our economy healthy. We need home grown, sustainable businesses across every industry. We need to encourage business pioneers. Making employment more expensive will discourage UK corporations, not encourage them.

We’ve witnessed this trend in the energy industry recently. Our joy at the final announcement of Feed-in Tariff, something Good Energy had been campaigning hard for, was quickly subdued by the footnote advising that only new generators would be rewarded. The pioneers of the industry; those that cared about climate change enough to fork out considerable amounts of their savings for their beliefs; those that supported a growing UK industry (that has the potential to be a world leader) when it needed it most, are being punished by policy.

Our campaign to ensure a fair deal for these pioneers has seen 97 MPs signing the EDM on the matter. We will work hard to make sure this policy is amended. I firmly believe that British pioneers should be encouraged and rewarded.

That’s not to say that I believe that the Tories or Lib Dems have the answers on National Insurance either – their shortcomings are well documented.

Making cuts will always be emotive. But it feels a little bit like the Government has taken a look around and wondered who hasn’t been quite pushed to the brink over the last few years. “Ah, entrepreneurs and businesses. We haven’t heard a peep out of them for a while.” Well here we are, and we are fed up – I’d like to see them go first!