Policy priorities

After a difficult decade, the UK must grasp opportunities to lead the G7 in economic growth. As the government moves from Green Paper consultation to active delivery, we’re calling for a modern industrial strategy that embraces trade and foreign policy while prioritising innovation, sustainability, and collaboration across sectors. The CBI is engaging with all four UK governments to align their industrial strategies with business priorities.

Get involved: Contact Mark Goldstone to explore joining the UK Competitiveness Committee or read our Blueprint for UK Competitiveness. Contact Helena Coe to explore joining our Global Competitiveness Committee.

The CBI has heard from businesses of all sizes, sectors and nations that the planning system is stifled with long delays and bureaucratic procedures. It is adversely impacting the delivery of much needed housing and infrastructure, as well as holding back private investment. Following reforms to the in England, the CBI is calling for greater resources and capacity in Local Planning Authorities to process planning applications. The CBI is working with all four UK governments to address challenges with the planning systems in each nation.

Get involved: Contact Josh Male to join our Planning and Infrastructure Working Group. Read our Planning for Growth report to see the broader package of reforms we called for, including ring-fencing planning fees and piloting the use of Planning Hubs.

The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, introduced in July 2025, grants strategic authorities, including metro mayors, enhanced powers over transport, housing, planning, skills, economic development, environment, and public services. This aligns with the CBI’s vision for embedding mayoral-led Local Growth Plans at the heart of regional competitiveness – while ensuring each Plan is aligned with the Government’s Industrial Strategy. The CBI supports this framework, emphasising the need for multi-year, integrated funding settlements, devolved skills budgets, and strategic planning powers to tailor investment strategies around regional strengths, making mayoral authorities’ powerful engines of productivity, growth, and inward investment.

Get involved: Contact Simon Dishman to join our Regional Growth Working Group. Contact Josh Male to join our Planning or Infrastructure Working Groups.

This vital trading relationship must be delivered for business. With a review into the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) taking place in 2026, now is the moment to shape the government’s thinking on the UK’s most important trading partner. The CBI is working across all four UK nations to ensure businesses benefit from strong trade agreements.

Get involved: Contact Sean McGuire for policy updates on the CBI’s engagement in Europe, and Erin Henwood for CBI policy and government activity on global trade.

Recent global geopolitical shocks have made it more important than ever for the UK to have a strong relationship with Ireland as one of its closest trading partners. The UK remains the first export market destination for many Irish businesses, while the rapidly growing Irish economy has delivered immense trade and investment opportunities for UK firms. That’s why the CBI is calling for free and frictionless trade and policies that maximise economic benefits from cross-border collaboration.

Get involved: Contact Angela McGowan to explore joining one of our Northern Ireland Working Groups.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) announced its intention for a new Trade Strategy to work hand-in-glove with the Industrial Strategy – something the CBI has long called-for. We will collaborate closely with DBT to ensure the new Trade Strategy addresses the challenges faced by UK firms trading globally and responds to protectionist measures in our key markets for goods and services. The strategy will also include the latest progress on the UK’s Free Trade Agreements.

Get involved: Contact Erin Henwood to discuss the CBI’s latest policy activity on trade.

AI is a national priority, central to the UK’s plans for innovation, productivity and global competitiveness. To realise this ambition, the UK must get both regulation and skills right, ensuring businesses have clarity and confidence to adopt AI safely, and access to the talent needed to do so. With new government funding committed to AI skills, and work ongoing to shape the UK’s regulatory approach, the focus must now shift to delivery. The CBI is working with government and industry to ensure policy translates into practical support for AI adoption.

Get involved: Contact Shivani Gupta to join our AI and Data Protection Working Group.

Innovation must be at the heart of the UK’s growth strategy. With long-term R&D funding now committed, the focus must shift to ensuring it is used to greatest effect to unlock business innovation, attract private investment, and drive sustainable growth. That means working closely with government on the design and delivery of programmes and incentives – supporting business-led R&D, enabling innovation through effective regulation, and aligning wider policy levers to make the UK a global hub for innovation.

Get involved: Contact Nicola Eckersley-Waites to join the R&D Working Group.

Having delivered a roundtable with the Cabinet Office on national resilience, and with our position on DBT’s economic security and resilient growth group, the CBI will continue to shape the government’s approach to economic resilience. We’ll gather and share key industry insights on the role of government in dealing with systemic resilience challenges, such as cyber security, along with what is practically needed to help businesses boost their own operational resilience.

Get involved: Contact Helena Coe and Megan Bulford for an overview of the CBI’s latest engagement with government on economic resilience.

Our members are concerned about the long-term decline in liquidity in London markets due to structural, regulatory and market factors. We’re bringing together experts from across our listed members to develop strategic and policy recommendations aimed at attracting more capital to UK equity markets and ensuring the UK remains competitive for large company listings.

Get involved: Contact Tom Maitland to join the Capital Markets Working Group.

With over £400bn in public spending, government procurement and public-private partnerships (PPPs) are powerful levers for UK growth and innovation. The CBI’s Government as a Partner work is shaping how government acts as a strategic customer and partner—unlocking private investment, sharing risk, and driving change through the Procurement Act and new models for procuring innovation. We’re working with all four UK governments to open up procurement and PPP opportunities for business, championing approaches that support national capability, good jobs, and the adoption of new technologies. Now is the time for members to engage, influence policy, and help deliver the UK’s growth mission.

Get involved: Contact Nicky Williams for public sector procurement and PPP activity, and Melissa McLaughlin for procurement of innovation.

The United States' new tariff policy has upended 'business as usual', creating fresh uncertainty for firms across the economy. While the UK-US Economic Prosperity Deal offers a platform for cooperation, businesses still need clarity, support and guidance on the latest developments and their practical implications. The CBI is working closely with the government and international stakeholders to ensure the voice of UK business directly shapes negotiations and their outcomes.

Get involved: Contact Erin Henwood for updates on CBI engagement on UK-US trade and support on tariff developments.

The CBI has been calling for meaningful reform of the business rates system in England. The 2024 Autumn Budget announcement to tax businesses with rateable values of £500,000 and above is not a sustainable solution for an antiquated business rates system that our members tell us is too complex, unpredictable, and unfair. We continue to make the case to government for a system that better incentivises growth and investment, including a move to a progressive slice-based system of taxation.

Get involved: Contact Rahim Mohamed to join the Business Rates Working Group.

The current tax system is unnecessarily complex – making it impractical for businesses to comply. We’re working with members to identify opportunities to de-clutter the UK’s ever-growing and complex tax code. We’ll connect with Treasury and HMRC officials to co-design areas of the tax system that can be simplified to streamline investment decisions, simplify contractor hiring, and efficiently manage employee expenses.

Get involved: Join our Tax Committee (spaces limited) and Employment Taxes Working Group by signing up here.

Firms are concerned that the UK’s regulatory environment is negatively impacting investment and growth. The CBI has launched the Regulatory Reform Taskforce – a member-led initiative to shape policy, drive reform, and create a more effective regulatory framework that unlocks the UK’s full economic potential.

Get involved: Contact Alex Guest to explore joining the CBI’s Regulatory Reform Taskforce.

The recent unpredictable tax environment has disincentivised businesses to invest in the UK. The CBI warned the government of the impact of increasing National Insurance Contributions (NICs) on employers and the negative impact on investment and jobs shows in our survey data. Instead of short-term revenue raising measures, the CBI will continue to advocate for structural tax reforms to boost productivity in key areas that benefit the wider economy such as employee health, R&D, and net zero. We must build on the stability offered in the Corporate Tax Roadmap by getting political commitments not to increase business taxes further - and to ensure tax rates and allowances remain predictable over this Parliament. The CBI is working with all four UK governments to ensure the tax environments in each nation remain competitive.

Get involved: To join our Tax Committee contact Alice Jeffries. To join any of our tax working groups - on Business Rates, Employment Tax, Digital Tax, Green Tax, Indirect Tax or Innovation Tax - sign up here.

The current tax system is unnecessarily complex – making it impractical for businesses to comply. Businesses applying the rules are best placed to show government how to make it simpler, something HMRC acknowledge in their Transformation Roadmap commitment to make greater use of external challenge. We’re working with members to de-clutter the UK’s ever-growing and complex tax code - including on e-invoicing, transfer pricing, tax certainty for major investment projects, R&D tax reliefs administration, payrolling of benefits, and more. We’re also connected with Treasury and HMRC officials to co-design areas of the tax system that can be simplified to streamline investment decisions, simplify contractor hiring, and efficiently manage employee expenses.

Get involved: To join our Tax Committee contact Alice Jeffries. To join any of our tax working groups - on Business Rates, Employment Tax, Digital Tax, Green Tax, Indirect Tax or Innovation Tax - sign up here.

With most of the public consultation on the Plan to Make Work Pay reforms taking place later this year – and rollout not expected to start until next year – the CBI will continue to work with government to ensure the legislation delivers a landing zone that protects growth and investment. CBI Northern Ireland (NI) will continue to work with the Northern Ireland Executive to ensure the Good Jobs Bill also delivers the right outcomes to unlock business growth.

Get involved: Contact Laurence Raeburn-Smith to join our Employment Rights Bill Working Group - the go-to place for the latest insights on how the legislation will impact firms. Contact Claire Sullivan to join the People and Skills Network NI.

With the Cross-Government Review of Technology Adoption and SME Digital Adoption Taskforce Report published, CBI continues to engage with the National Technology Advisor, Dave Smith, and Minister responsible for Technology Adoption, Baroness Jones, to advocate for a cohesive National Technology Adoption Plan that delivers the support businesses throughout all sectors of the economy need to adopt technologies. We are actively urging government to implement its own digitisation plans through the Blueprint for Modern Digital Government in a way that encourages and spurs private sector adoption, delivering on skills, procurement of innovation, and digital public services.

Get involved: Contact Melissa McLaughlin to express your interest in joining our Tech Adoption Working Group.

Skills is a core issue for businesses across all four nations of the UK. We are working closely with the government to ensure Skills England, the new body established to address England’s skills needs, can deliver a skills system that is genuinely responsive to business needs. This body will determine eligible spend for the new Growth and Skills Levy, which is due to replace the current Apprenticeship Levy. The CBI is also engaging with devolved governments and skills bodies – Northern Ireland Skills Council, Skills Development Scotland and Skills Wales – to ensure their policies deliver for business.

Get involved: Contact Evie Matthews to join our Education and Skills Working Group.

The National Living Wage and the National Minimum Wage are increased each April based on the recommendations of the LPC. The CBI’s written and oral evidence to the LPC next summer will explain the impact of the 6.7% increase in April 2025 and how businesses expect to accommodate the next increase in 2026. Our evidence will draw significantly on the impact of the increasing cost of employment on investment and growth.

Get involved: Contact Laurence Raeburn-Smith to talk to us about the impact of the recommendations on your business.

Currently, energy costs are one of the top three themes in business feedback to the government's industrial strategy. Investing in clean energy not only enables businesses to manage their energy costs more effectively but also enhances their resilience to future price shocks. We are collaborating closely with national and devolved government departments to develop policies that will deliver competitive energy prices and support businesses in their efforts to decarbonise their operations.

Get involved: Contact Jonathan Oxley to get involved in our policy engagement work.

Delivering the UK’s clean energy agenda requires infrastructure to be built at scale and pace. Mission Control is a new initiative set up aimed at accelerating the build out of clean power, working alongside the National Energy System Operator and Ofgem to remove obstacles and identify solutions. We will be working with these stakeholders to ensure that the concerns of business are being addressed on issues such as planning, consenting, and connections.

Get involved: Contact Tia Magrath to join our Net Zero Working Group, or Josh Male to join our Infrastructure Working Group.

The scale of investment needed to achieve an economy-wide transition to net zero is colossal, and most of this investment will need to come from the private sector. The establishment of the National Wealth Fund and Great British Energy as public tools to attract private investment is a significant step forward. In addition to collaborating with these organisations to identify projects that are too costly to finance privately, we will also work with government departments to explore how green finance tools can support households and businesses in adopting decarbonisation technologies.

Get involved: Contact Jennifer Beckwith for the latest engagement on Great British Energy, and Conan McHugh on engagement with green finance tools for decarbonisation adoption.

With the government consulting on a raft of sustainable finance policy this year, from a UK green taxonomy to transition plans, we’ll be working hard to ensure any additional regulatory burden is truly mobilising investment and supporting the transition. This includes via the CBI’s role on the Transition Finance Council which will be the driving force for implementation of the transition finance market review recommendations.

Get involved: Contact Tom Maitland to join the Sustainable Finance Working Group

Business needs policy certainty and strategic direction if the UK is to hit net zero by 2050. As a delivery partner for the government’s Net Zero Council, we’ll be providing strategic insight to government to support policy development for the upcoming Net Zero Strategy as well as supporting the development and delivery of sector roadmaps, helping businesses to develop transition plans and investors to identify opportunities.

Get involved: Contact Jennifer Beckwith to engage with the Net Zero Council work programme, and Tia Magrath to join our Net Zero Working Group.

UK tax policy needs a stronger link to net zero. We’re calling for more effective incentives to unlock investment in green technologies, while ensuring measures such as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism are designed to minimise unnecessary administrative burdens on business.
Get involved: Join our Green Taxes Working Group by signing up here.