00:00Last year, the Labour government unveiled their first budget of this parliament, met with
00:04mixed opinions and controversy. One of the Chancellor's measures that caused a stir
00:10was raising employers' national insurance contributions. From April this year, the rate
00:16for these contributions increased from 13.8% to 15%, as well as the threshold to start
00:23paying these, decreasing from Ā£9,100 to Ā£5,000 each year. It's approximated that employers
00:30would be paying an extra Ā£900 for each employee. At the time, Rachel Reeves explained she needed
00:36to make difficult decisions to balance the books. But we're not in parliament now and
00:40I'm here in Gillingham to find out what Kent residents really feel.
00:44Faruk Kapur has owned Oasis Cafe in Gillingham for 25 years, with his business experiencing
00:50problems since 2020. Raising NI contributions came at a terrible time.
00:56Last year, the government changed national insurance, so employers like you had to pay much more?
01:02Yes, yes, of course. Everything is going more difficult now. Everything is going up. I don't know.
01:08I am struggling now. I decided I don't know what can I do. All the taxes, something like that,
01:15but I don't know where the money is going. Look at our promises.
01:18Likewise, Emiya Kuti, who owns Pateri restaurant in Gillingham, is already struggling against a
01:24tide of rising costs and flagging footfall. Yes, yes. Expensively, more expensive than last year
01:31or two years ago in the wages. Unistar Health Consultant is owned by Unis,
01:36who is calling on the government to sympathise with owners like her this Wednesday.
01:41It has been going up. Well, it went up last year and we're not sure the budget is on the way now,
01:45so we're not sure if it's going to all go up again, but definitely it really,
01:49really affected the business last year. So everything went up, not even the NI, the pension,
01:53everything went up. So yeah, honestly, if governments can look at it and see what they can do for us.
01:59Yeah, honestly, because the small businesses, we are really struggling.
02:02I don't think anybody expected an increase in employers' national insurance contributions,
02:08and that has massively affected the appetite of businesses to grow. So it would be interesting
02:16to see if they do make a change on that. I certainly think that it has been a break
02:20on what they call growth. I think growth for growth's sake is pretty meaningless, but we need a healthy economy.
02:32But with the budget round the corner, all councillors, small business owners and residents alike can do is wait.
02:40Megan Shaw for Kane TV in Gillingham.
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