a High Street Family focused Cafe the archetypal small to mediumsized business that's the backbone of Britain's economy but earning a crust hasn't been this tough for years Rising costs and looming tax changes and the increase in minimum wage mean the owner's hopes to open more outlets in the coming years are on hold I have to choose between whether I need to reduce St hours um but then also I'm trying to give the best customers service to to my customers as well to make sure that I still got the footall coming through what's it like trying
to manage that uncertainty then it's very hard because with everything going up um with the supply chain going up as well it's really hard for me as a small business to from I don't know a breakfast being £15 to being increased to 20 how do I manage like how can I do that we're not talking about heres handbags here we're talking about a breakfast yeah yeah yeah we're talking about breakfast we don't have figures for the Christmas period yet but averaged across the UK economy growth since the new government took power has reversed with pubs
restaurants and Retail doing particularly badly the O has now downgraded its figures for Q2 from .5 to 4% and Q3 July to September had been predicted to be just 0.1% it's now estimated to have flatlined at zero the CBI predicts 2025 won't be easy and expect sluggish growth of 1.6% at best 2025 I'm I'm uh quite I'd say scared but what can we say is it's going to be a new year it's going to be a challenging year we do expect business activity to fall in the first um half uh of next year um but
we do expect that growth overall will be positive we really need to get that engine going from the private sector to make sure that we have got longer term sustainable growth the Tories say the warning lights are flashing claiming the UK economy had been the fastest growing in the G7 at the end of their watch labor say it was the Tories who tanked the economy and insist give us time after years of instability a lack of investment and a government that wasn't willing to uh do its work under the last conservative government we are absolutely
confident that it's the right approach working in partnership with investors and wealth creators to be able to stimulate growth in the economy We've Only Just Got Started Labor's been in government now for a couple of months but we have very significant plans going into 2025 and the years ahead to bring that stability and investment and reform to the British economy which will stimulate growth in the years ahead and if growth doesn't materialize the treasury faces tough choices ahead put up taxes again or cut spending for the Services they've promised to improve
