Controversial changes to employers’ national insurance contributions could be phased after a move by a high profile member of the House of Lords.
Lord Wolsfon - who is the boss of high street retailer Next - has used his position in the House of Lords to table amendments aimed at phasing in the changes, according to The Times.
The measures announced in the budget will see employers’ national insurance contributions increase from 13.2% to 15% and the secondary threshold at which employers begin to pay national insurance decline to £5,000 a year from £9,100 a year.
Lord Wolfson, who has been a Conservative peer since 2010, supported Baroness Noakes’s amendments to the bill.
The proposed amendments have been introduced to enable “a phased introduction of the reductions to the secondary threshold” of national insurance.
The bill is at the committee stage in the Lords and is due to take effect in April.
Earlier in January, Next said it will raise prices by 1% this year to mitigate a £67 million increase in its wage costs to January 2026, brought on also by the rise in the minimum wage from April.
Click here to read more on this story in The Times.