UK-India trade deal: Is Farage right to call out ‘big tax exemption’?

Published

7 months ago

May 7, 2025

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Britain’s trade deal with India has created a pocket of controversy on taxation.

Under the agreement, Indian workers who have been seconded to Britain temporarily will not have to pay National Insurance (NI) contributions in the UK. Instead, they will continue to pay the Indian exchequer.

The same applies to British workers in India. It avoids workers from being taxed twice for a full suite of benefits they will not receive, such as the state pension.

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Politicians of all stripes have leapt to judgement.

Nigel Farage has described it as a “big tax exemption” for Indian workers. He said it was “impossible to say how many will come,” with the Reform Party warning of “more mass immigration, more pressure on the NHS, more pressure on housing.”

But, is this deal really undercutting British workers or is it simply creating a level playing field?

Be wary of any hasty conclusions. In the absence of an impact assessment from the government, it is difficult to be precise about any of this. However, at first glance, it is unlikely that some of Reform’s worst fears will play out.

Firstly, avoiding double taxation is not the same thing as a “tax break.’ This type of agreement, known as a double contribution convention, is not new.

Britain has similar arrangements with other countries and blocs, including the US, EU, Canada and Japan.

It’s based on the principle that workers shouldn’t be paying twice for social security taxes that they will not benefit from.

Indian workers and businesses will still have to pay the equivalent tax in India, as well as sponsorship fees and the NHS surcharge.

Crucially, the deal only applies to workers being sent over by Indian companies on a temporary basis.

Those workers are on Indian payroll. It does not apply to Indian workers more generally. That means businesses in the UK can’t (and won’t) suddenly be replacing all their workers with Indians.

The conditions for a company to send over a secondee on a work visa are restrictive. It means it’s unlikely that these workers will be replacing British workers.

However, It does mean that the exchequer will not capture the extra national insurance tax from those who come over on this route.

The government has not shared its impact assessment for how many extra Indians they expect to come over on this route, how much NI they will escape, or how much this will be offset by extra income tax from those Indians. The net financial position is therefore murky.

Business

Burger King UK lands new backing from buyout firm Bridgepoint

Published

4 hours ago

December 11, 2025

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Burger King UK lands new backing from buyout firm Bridgepoint

The private equity backer of Burger King UK has injected millions of pounds of new funding as part of a deal which paves the way for their partnership to be extended into the 2040s.

Sky News understands that Bridgepoint has invested a further £15m into the fast food giant in recent days, with a further sum – thought to be up to £20m – to be deployed over the next 18 months.

The new funding has been committed as Burger King UK’s Master Franchise Agreement with a subsidiary of Restaurant Brands International has been extended to 2044 in a deal which is said to align the interests of its various financial stakeholders more closely.

Burger King’s British operations comprise roughly 575 outlets, and employ approximately 12,000 people.

In results released this week, Burger King UK said it had delivered a “solid performance…amid sector headwinds” in 2024.

Revenue increased by 7% to £408.3m, with underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation up 12% to £26m.

The company also said it had completed a refinancing process, with the maturity of its bank facilities pushed out to March 2028.

Under the leadership of Alasdair Murdoch, its long-serving chief executive, Burger King plans to open roughly 30 new sites next year.

It comes at a challenging time for the UK hospitality sector, with casual dining chains TGI Fridays and Leon both filing to appoint administrators in the last few days.

Industry bosses say that last month’s Budget has piled fresh cost pressures on them.

Bridgepoint declined to comment on the injection of new capital into Burger King UK.

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Hundreds of jobs at risk as LEON moves to cut unprofitable restaurants

Published

23 hours ago

December 10, 2025

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Hundreds of jobs at risk as LEON moves to cut unprofitable restaurants

The fast food chain LEON has taken a swipe at “unsustainable taxes” while moving to secure its future through the appointment of an administrator, leaving hundreds of jobs at risk.

The loss-making company, bought back from Asda by its co-founder John Vincent in October, said it had begun a process that aimed to bring forward the closure of unprofitable sites. It was to form part of a turnaround plan to restore the brand to its roots around natural foods.

It was unclear at this stage how many of its 71 restaurants – 44 of them directly owned – and approximately 1,100 staff would be affected by the plans for the so-called Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA).

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“The restructuring will involve the closure of several of LEON’s restaurants and a number of job losses”, a statement said.

“The company has created a programme to support anyone made redundant.”

It added: “LEON and Quantuma intend to spend the next few weeks discussing the plans with its landlords and laying out options for the future of the Company.

“LEON then plans to emerge from administration as a leaner business that can return to its founding values and principles more easily.

“In the meantime, all the group’s restaurants remain open, serving customers as usual. The LEON grocery business will not be affected in any way by the CVA.”

Mr Vincent said. “If you look at the performance of LEON’s peers, you will see that everyone is facing challenges – companies are reporting significant losses due to working patterns and increasingly unsustainable taxes.”

Mr Vincent sold the chain to Asda in 2021 for £100m but it struggled, like rivals, to make headway after the pandemic and cost of living crisis that followed the public health emergency.

The hospitality sector has taken aim at the chancellor’s business rates adjustments alongside heightened employer national insurance contributions and minimum wage levels, accusing the government of placing jobs and businesses in further peril.

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Revenues of water company to be cut by regulator Ofwat

Published

23 hours ago

December 10, 2025

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Revenues of water company to be cut by regulator Ofwat

The UK’s biggest water supplier has been dealt another blow as the regulator decided to reduce its income.

Thames Water, which supplies 16 million people in England, has been told by the watchdog Ofwat its revenues will be cut by more than £187m.

It comes as the utility struggles under a £17.6bn debt pile and the government has lined up insolvency practitioners for its potential collapse.

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Overall, water firms face a sector-wide revenue reduction of nearly £309m as a result of Ofwat’s determination. Thames Water’s £187.1m cut is the largest revenue reduction.

This will take effect from next year and up to 2030 as part of water companies’ regulator-approved five-year spending and investment plans.

The downward revenue revision has been made as Ofwat believes the companies will perform better than first thought and therefore require less money.

Better financial performance is ultimately good news for customers.

The change published on Wednesday is a technical update; the initial revenue projections published in December 2024 were based on projected financial performance but after financial results were published in the summer and Ofwat was able to apply these figures.