Chancellor must encourage business investment The Telegraph’s Jeremy Warner comments on the increasingly vocal calls for the planned hike in National Insurance Contributions to be scrapped, arguing that business taxes should be cut instead. UK consumption will not be a major issue, Warner contends, but “endemically low levels of public and business investment” will be a problem as it feeds poor productivity and in turn lower standards of living. Warner concludes that “if there is cash to splash in the Spring Statement, it would be better spent on incentivising business investment than the ultimately futile endeavour of attempting to counter the cost-of-living shock, particularly given the ever more urgent need for increased energy and economic self-sufficiency."