Britain’s most promising businesses are being held back by surging employment costs and persistent difficulties attracting skilled workers, new research has found.
A survey of 423 leaders of high-growth companies by Enterprise Britain found that 93 per cent still aim to increase headcount over the next 12 months despite mounting pressures.
The research focused on so-called “super scalers,” defined as companies with at least 50 employees and £5m in turnover that have grown employment or sales by at least 20 per cent annually for three consecutive years.
Three in four of those businesses said they would hire at least 10 per cent more employees than currently planned if the barriers holding them back were removed.
Enterprise Britain is calling on the government to reverse the increase in employers’ National Insurance contributions ahead of next month’s Budget.
Employers currently pay National Insurance at 15 per cent on most employee earnings above £5,000 a year, up from 13.8 per cent before April 2025.
Brent Hoberman, co-founder of Lastminute.com and co-chair of Enterprise Britain, said the upcoming Budget represented a critical moment for policymakers to act in support of growing firms.
“The Autumn Budget provides Andy Burnham’s government with a golden opportunity to back Britain’s super scalers, accelerate job creation, and spread prosperity more widely,” he said. “It is critical that we don’t miss this moment.”
Companies also flagged that lengthy notice periods and non-compete clauses were making it harder to bring in experienced workers quickly, compounding skills shortages across fast-growing sectors.
Enterprise Britain has called for workers to be able to cut notice periods to one month and for non-compete clauses to be banned outright, arguing that talent needs to move more freely between businesses.
The stakes are considerable, given that super scalers punch well above their weight in Britain’s broader economy and labour market.
Enterprise Britain identified around 10,000 such companies, which together employ more than five million people and accounted for over 30 per cent of all jobs created between 2020 and 2024, despite representing less than one per cent of UK companies.
Their headcount grew by an average of 46 per cent over that period, and 67 per cent of their operations are located outside London and the South East.
Despite this record, frustration is running high among the leaders driving that growth, with four in 10 saying they would not choose Britain if they were starting their company again.
Some 71 per cent said Britain’s aversion to risk was holding back economic growth, adding to concerns about the country’s broader attractiveness as a place to build a business.
Vacancies fell to 702,000 in the three months to August, the lowest level since early 2021, while the number of payrolled employees fell by 101,000 in the year to July.
Beyond hiring costs and talent access, Enterprise Britain also identified shortages of domestic investment and the weight of regulation and bureaucracy as significant obstacles to further expansion.
The group has called for greater incentives for pension funds to invest in British venture capital and faster introduction of the government’s Scale-up Concierge service to help growing businesses navigate regulation.