BCC Director General Shevaun Haviland: Back Business to Deliver Growth

25th June 2026

A new Administration must back business if it wants the UK to prosper, Director General of the BCC, Shevaun Haviland,?is set to warn.? 

At the BCC’s Global Annual Conference, Haviland will outline how successive governments have hobbled Britain’s business prospects and the three drivers of growth through which the damage can be fixed. 

She will urge the next Prime Minister to resist the temptation to pile costs on business, if they want the economy to deliver the growth needed to fund wider priorities. 

ON ECONOMIC GROWTH 

Haviland is expected to highlight how delivering growth is the only answer to the UK’s persistent tax, borrowing and spending challenge, saying: 

“The difficult truth is, whoever leads the UK, the primary challenge remains the same – delivering growth. 

“Outside of the pandemic rebound, UK growth has flatlined year after year. And this economic malaise is nothing new or attributable to the policies of a single government.  

“Despite all our strengths, we are failing to fulfil our potential. Businesses can feel it and voters can feel it too.” 

ON?BUSINESS CONFIDENCE

Emphasising the importance of business confidence, Haviland will say: 

“We have the ambition, the ideas, the talent. Why aren’t we delivering more growth as a nation

“Our research gives a clear answer – it is a lack of confidence.

“Weak confidence reduces appetite for risk, which reduces investment, which hampers growth, which knocks confidence further.

“And this circular crisis of confidence is now shackling ambition. Blocking the actions needed to invest, innovate and trade. 

“And whoever sits in No10, or the Treasury, needs to understand that.

“Businesses can only deliver growth, if the environment they operate in gives them the confidence  to act. And that is where political leadership can make all the difference.” 

ON POLICY AND COSTS 

Addressing the cost of doing business in the UK, Haviland is expected to say: 

“A cost of doing business crisis is now suppressing the very growth we want to see. Over the last decade policy choices have made the reality of doing business even tougher. 

“Government imposed costs on your average SME have risen by more than 70 per cent in just 10 years. 

“At a time of huge economic shocks and global headwinds,successive UK governments have chosen to pile more and more cost on companies. That is no way to run an economy. 

“So, if we want to see growth - our political leaders must reduce the burdens on business.

“Taxing businesses more, would be a road to ruin. The quickest way to destroy the fragile confidence that we have left. You must back businesses, not tax them, if you want to see growth. 

“Great care is also needed to prevent the Employment Rights Act, having a similar confidence crushing effect. We need to find a mix that works for all. That means coming together. Government, unions and business and accepting that there will need to be compromises to make this package workable. Ensuring rights – but also employment.” 

Also speaking at the conference will be Robert Begbie, CEO, Commercial and Institutional at NatWest – the BCC’s headline partner for the event. 

Looking ahead to the day, he said: 

“Growth and confidence must be at the centre of the UK’s economic agenda. The UK does not lack ambition or ideas — the challenge is scaling them into globally competitive businesses. As the UK’s largest bank for business, we see first-hand the opportunity to turn resilience into momentum — bringing together ideas, capital, policy and technology where growth happens.  

“By supporting businesses from start-up through to scale, and helping create the right conditions for investment, we can unlock confidence, remove barriers to action, and drive sustainable growth across the UK.”