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Chancellor Reeves aims to boost growth; brokers can help businesses thrive.
Published on 13 March, 2025
Author: Markel UK
7 minute read
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has vowed to go “further and faster” to kick-start growth. What does this mean for businesses and how can brokers help them grow?
“A man’s reach should extend his grasp,” according to English poet and playwright Robert Browning. Applied to the world of business, this means being innovative, ambitious and optimistic. Whether it’s taking calculated risks to grow a company, or other bold steps needed to expand, it’s a sentiment that chimes with the spirit of the Chancellor’s recent statements.
After a slow end to 2024 and weak business confidence, noted in a UK Parliament economic update and based on relatively gloomy survey findings, Reeves is charging into 2025 with upbeat plans to shrug off what she describes as “low expectations, stagnation and the risk of decline”.
In late January, she set out plans to prioritise economic growth and accelerate the Government’s ‘Plan for Change’ (a programme of milestones and priorities to reach by the end of parliament), stressing that “low growth is not our destiny”. Ideas to drive small and medium-size enterprise (SME) business growth include airport expansion, lower business rates, trade measures, apprenticeships and regulatory plans.
A key pillar in the Government’s growth agenda is the science and tech-focused Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor, which industry experts believe will add up to £78bn to the UK economy by 2035, from a region which currently accounts for over 7% of total UK GDP. The Government hopes the area will become the “economic engine for the whole of the nation”.
The Chancellor’s announcements follow a green paper consultation on Invest 2035, Labour’s new 10-year industrial strategy, which puts growth front and centre.
Fostering success
The Labour government paints a positive picture, but what do these plans mean in practice for UK businesses? Tina McKenzie, policy chair of the Federation of Small Businesses, says the Chancellor’s speech sends a strong, confident message that growth will now be mission number one. Yet it’s the pace of action that matters, according to McKenzie.
She also says that further pro-growth choices should be made, calling for measures to support small businesses by improving the Employment Rights Bill for small employers and extending the pro-growth push aimed at regulators to include HMRC.
With many firms seemingly struggling with ‘business as usual’, SMEs face other hurdles in growing their business. Professor Stephen Roper, director of Warwick Business School’s Enterprise Research Centre, says the Government’s new policy ideas and growth plans sound good in the long-term, but “will do little to ease the immediate pressures of energy and employment costs”. For energy-intensive sectors, high electricity costs are causing significant problems, he notes. And businesses are concerned about the rising costs of employing people, including national insurance hikes for employers from April 2025.
Prof Roper, also co-director of the national Innovation and Research Caucus, adds: “More broadly, there are recruitment and retention issues in what continues to be a tight labour market (particularly for IT and technical skills).”
BIBA says that brokers have a key role to play
Growing pains
As brokers, how can you help your clients successfully grow their business? What are the actions businesses need to take?
- Stay agile – agility remains key to growth, which includes being flexible in how budgets and resources are managed but still being prepared.
- Take measured risks – but have the right cover to manage those risks.
- Harness tech and AI – to help create efficiencies, reduce costs and innovate to meet customer needs (digitisation of UK SMEs is a key lever to growth and productivity, says membership body TechUK).
- Get a grip on cybersecurity – plan for resilience to attacks through bespoke cyber insurance. Raising awareness of the risks and need for specific cyber insurance (such as Markel’s cyber and data risks cover), through continued collaboration with the Government and wider insurance industry, is a priority for the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA).
- Build resilience more broadly – part of this is around insurance, says Roper, but it’s also about planning for the worst (from off-site system back-ups of business-critical data and financial information, to what happens if business-critical staff become unavailable).
- Keep an eye on the competition – often it’s about looking around and seeing what others are doing and what could work for their business, advises Roper.
- Look to international recruitment – which can widen and diversify a business’s talent pool.
- Be aware of existing finance options needed to grow.
For firms wanting to grow there is help available, says Roper. The Government’s ‘Help to Grow’ scheme is offered across the country, he notes, adding: “It provides proven training on how to increase sales and profitability.”
In its 2025 manifesto 2, BIBA says that brokers have a key role to play in helping economic growth, by improving confidence for businesses, increasing resilience and offering vital advice. According to its manifesto, 92% of medium-sized businesses say insurance has enabled them to grow their business, while 28% of sole traders do not feel confident in assessing their insurance needs (16% across all SMEs).
From helping businesses assess risk management and health and safety issues, to fire prevention and premises security – all of which can make or break a business’s successful growth – having the right insurance and knowing how to cope with everyday legal and business issues is essential.
For clients who may need support navigating everyday challenges, brokers can help companies access the Markel UK Business Hub and Business legal Helpline. The online hub contains everything from DIY contracts to policies, forms and letter templates covering every area of business, including health and safety, trading and contracts and cyber and data. The legal helpline provides access to qualified solicitors who can help with legal issues.