An increase in national insurance and a rising living wage is leading to predictions of a hiring freeze across the sector. But not every economist agrees

‘It’s very tough. We’re really being forced to question whether this is viable,” says Dan Brod, who has spent the past 16 years building his small chain of luxury pubs and restaurants in England’s idyllic south-west.

From next weekend, the owner of the Beckford Group, alongside almost one million other businesses, will be hit with a combined £25bn rise in employer national insurance contributions (NICs) as Rachel Reeves’s autumn budget measures come into effect. With a worsening economic backdrop, the fear is the change will only make matters worse.