The National Insurance Contributions increase which comes into play in the new financial year is in my eyes, essentially an extra tax for a business owner to employ someone.

It’s also a two-pronged attack because as well as increasing the percentage from 13.8% to 15%, the threshold has been lowered.

It used to be £9100 a year meaning that we wouldn’t pay National Insurance for our casual workers, like students or summer staff, if they earned less than that amount.

It’s now been set at £5000.

This will hugely hinder growth at a time when we should be trying to strengthen the economy.

We've done calculations and next year these changes are going to cost us an extra £100,000. It’s a lot of money, and with margins so tight across the whole industry I think many businesses will be working on break-even models to try and surf their way through 2025.

This alongside the national minimum wage increase makes things really difficult and as a group, we don’t know where we’re going to get this........

© Herald Scotland