What small businesses need to know following the Autumn Budget

With the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) projecting inflation to average 3.5% in 2025 and the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) revising growth down to 1.5%, careful planning will be more important than ever. Here’s what the Budget means for SMEs, summarised across four key areas.

Business rates continue to affect many small firms, particularly those with customer-facing premises that often feel the sharpest squeeze during periods of slower consumer spending.

The Budget includes several measures designed to offer some welcome relief:

• Continued targeted relief for smaller retail, hospitality and leisure businesses into 2026.
• A permanent move to lower business rates for around 750,000 eligible properties from April 2026, funded by higher rates for commercial properties with a rateable value of more than £500,000.
• A £4.3bn support package to cap large bill increases for sectors hit hardest following revaluations.

These pledges allow some breathing space for small businesses relying on physical premises, such as cafés, salons and independents, easing pressure on margins and providing some long-term certainty over rates. 

It’s not a complete solution, but it does provide the stability businesses need to plan for future growth. For those constantly competing with online retailers, it could also offer a much-needed boost.

Next steps? Check whether your property qualifies, as relief may be sector-specific, and update your 2026 cash flow forecasts accordingly.

Rather than raising headline tax rates, the Chancellor extended the freeze on income tax and National Insurance thresholds until 2031. This means that as wages rise, more income is gradually pulled into higher tax bands.

Dividend tax changes also have an impact for company directors:

• Basic dividend rates will rise by 2 percentage points (to 10.75%) from April 2026.
• The dividend allowance continues to shrink, with only the first £500 remaining tax-free (having stood at £2,000 until April 2023), increasing tax on profit extraction and thus reducing its net benefit.

This change reduces the difference between taking pay as a salary versus dividends. For small business directors who rely on dividends, costs could rise, while employees may also feel the squeeze as frozen tax thresholds push more people into higher bands.

Next steps? While our advisers can’t recommend whether you take income as salary or dividends, they can highlight these changes and encourage you to speak with your accountant about the impact on your remuneration strategy.

Where our advisers can add real value is by exploring tax-efficient ways to extract profits, such as pension contributions which can be highly effective for business owners. If considering this type of planning, our advisers will liaise with your accountant to ensure everything aligns with your overall financial strategy.

Labour is one of the biggest operating costs for SMEs, and that is set to increase. The National Living Wage for over-21s will rise by 4.1% to £12.71 per hour from April 2026, adding roughly £1,000 to the annual cost of a full-time minimum-wage employee. 

For small firms already feeling wage pressure, this may not be easy to absorb. However, the Budget also included investment in the government’s Growth and Skills Levy reforms. 

These are designed to help employers address skills shortages affordably, enhance workforce training, and fill roles more efficiently, such as:

• Expanded apprenticeships funding, particularly for under-25s
• Incentives aimed at green and digital skills development
• Wider labour market reforms, including adjustments to streamline visa systems, to balance workforce gaps.

While wage rises may increase day-to-day costs for SMEs, making use of apprenticeships can be a cost-effective way for small businesses to grow their own talent pipeline and improve retention.

Next steps? Government-funded apprenticeship training could help SMEs who frequently recruit entry-level staff to build long-term resilience and growth.

Transport and energy costs continue to dominate conversations in many industries—in logistics, trades, retail and more. The Budget included several measures that may offer short-term stability:

• Fuel duty remains frozen until September 2026.
• A mileage-based tax system for electric vehicles (EVs) will be introduced from 2028.
• Grants continue for EV adoption and charge point installation.
• Household energy bills will fall by an average of £150 from April 2026.

For businesses running vans or cars, the fuel duty freeze is welcome news if perhaps a short-term relief. The shift toward a mileage-based tax on EVs means that longer-term budgeting will need to account for new EV-related costs. 

One way for SMEs to offset these bills – and improve their sustainability credentials - is with energy-efficiency grants and new cost-saving measures directed at SMEs such as the Made Smarter Adoption programme.

Next steps? Review your fleet strategy and energy usage and factor it into your forecasts.

While many small businesses will be navigating rising costs in several areas, the Budget offsets this with targeted reliefs and incentives. The key is proactively planning to deal with nagging cost pressures, whether that means adjusting remuneration strategies, exploring eligibility for reliefs, looking into the value of apprenticeships or combatting energy cost rises.

This article is for information purposes only. It is not intended as advice.

Fees and charges apply.

Tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each client and may be subject to change in the future.

Personal and corporate tax advice are not offered by Schroders Personal Wealth. These are complex area and we recommend that you weigh up all the positives and negatives, and take professional advice before committing to a course of action.

In preparing this article we have used third party sources that we believe to be true and accurate as at the date of writing. However, we can give no assurances or warranty regarding the accuracy, currency or applicability of any of the content in relation to specific situations and particular circumstances.