Lincoln Smith, managing director of Custom Heat & Cool, has urged the chancellor to focus on helping small businesses survive, ahead of the Budget later this month.
He said that rising employment costs, record fuel prices and uncertainty over home heating were squeezing firms like his from every side.
Lincoln added: “There’s a lot of talk about growth, but for many businesses like ours the question right now is survival. We want to grow, of course, but first we need a fair chance to keep going. Firms are closing and it isn’t only about how they’re run. The economic climate is a big part of it.”
Since April 2025, employers have faced higher National Insurance contributions, a lower threshold at which they start paying them and successive increases to the National Living Wage, which rose to £12.71 an hour in April. Lincoln noted that the cost of each new member of staff had risen sharply.
He said: “For one engineer on £45,000, I’m now paying around £6,000 a year in employer NI alone. Every hire is a bigger commitment, and skilled engineers are already hard to find.”
The family business employs around 70 people across the Midlands and Southwest. It has run its own apprenticeship programme for around a decade, training around 25 apprentices. Lincoln said he wanted to take on more, but the cost was significant.
Lincoln added: “An apprentice takes years to qualify, and the business carries that cost the whole way through. Companies investing in the next generation of engineers should get proper support to do it.”
The average price of diesel reached a record 199.18p a litre at the end of September. Fuel duty is due to rise by 3p a litre in January and a further 2p in March. Final rates are set to be confirmed when the chancellor delivers the Budget on 28 October.
He said: “Our engineers can’t work from a laptop. They’re out in vans every day, so every increase at the pump hits our costs directly. Raising fuel duty now would be a mistake.”
VAT on household electricity was cut to zero from 1 October until the end of March 2027. Separate research from Which? found that many homeowners see installing a heat pump as a gamble, because of upfront costs, uncertainty over running costs and unfamiliar technology. Lincoln said that the VAT cut was welcome, but customers needed longer-term certainty.
He added: “People need to know what happens after March. Nobody wants to spend thousands on their home and then see the rules change. Help should also go to the households that need it most.
“My Budget wish list starts with survival. Make it easier to employ and train people, keep fuel duty down, and set out a long-term plan for home heating that customers and businesses can trust. Get that right, and we can start talking about growth again.”