FINANCIAL experts and business owners have shared the New Year’s Resolution they think the government or Bank of England should make — and stick to — in 2026.
The Bank of England’s (BoE) base rate is currently at 3.75%, having been cut by 0.25% in December, while inflation was at 3.2% in November 2025, down more than expected but still well above the target of 2%.
Labour raised National Insurance (NI) payments for businesses in 2025 and chose to increase welfare spending.
Newspage spoke to financial experts and small business owners and asked what New Year’s Resolution the government or Bank of England should make in 2026.
For Tony Redondo, Founder at Newquay-based Cosmos Currency Exchange, it’s simple: the government needs to both cut taxes and cut back on the welfare state.
He said: “The government should dramatically cut spending and taxes, leaving capital with entrepreneurs who drive genuine wealth creation through innovation and competition. Benefits must be reformed so work always pays more than welfare, ending dependency traps that destroy the work ethic.
“A true meritocracy rewards effort and ability, encouraging productive contribution. This matters because prosperity requires sound money, minimal intervention and proper incentives. Government spending diverts resources from wealth-creating private activity.
“The welfare state, though well-intentioned, undermines personal responsibility and entrepreneurship, the real engines of progress. Long-term benefits include sustainable growth, innovation and a dynamic economy rewarding merit over political connections.
“Entrepreneurs must be allowed to operate unencumbered, and individuals must face real incentives to work and create value rather than depend on state support.”
Certainty beats constant ‘wait and see’
Sarah Gatford, a positive psychology coach at Derby-based Sarah Gatford Ltd, urged the government to focus on mental health in 2026.
She said: “My New Year’s Resolution for the government is measure people, not just pounds. Start tracking how people are actually doing, their energy levels, connection and purpose alongside GDP and inflation. This isn’t soft. It’s basic economics.
“When millions are functioning but exhausted, they’re neither productive nor spending. They’re surviving. Exhausted, disconnected people don’t drive growth. They cost money.
“The government talks about growth. But growth built on exhausted people is a house of cards. Stop measuring only what’s easy to count. Start measuring what matters.”
Kate Underwood, Founder at Southampton-based Kate Underwood HR and Training, said Labour needs to focus on helping small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
She added: “If ‘supporting SMEs’ was a performance review, the government would be on a PIP (Performance Improvement Plan): big promises, missed deadlines and zero delivery. In 2025 you didn’t support small businesses. You stressed them. Policy whiplash, vague headlines, last-minute changes and costs creeping up while you told owners to be ‘resilient’.
“Meanwhile, business owners are doing HR, payroll and cashflow at 10pm, trying to keep people paid and stay on the right side of employment law. So for 2026, here’s the resolution: stop being the source of chaos, start to end it.
“Lock the rules early, give proper lead-in time and tackle late payments with consequences, not speeches. Stability is support. Everything else is PR in a suit. Because uncertainty is a tax. It freezes hiring, kills pay rises, and pushes decent employers into survival mode.”
American attitude to policy
David Belle, Founder and Trader at Fink Money, believes scrapping environmental policies would help in 2026.
He continued: “Forget anything to do with green. I have no idea why it was ever brought into central bank verbiage. Their core focus should be on how best to satisfy the requirement for super low borrowing to enable infrastructure buildout at this stage and to forget anything else.
“We need an American attitude to policy, where Donald Trump has been almost forcing rates lower while achieving unbelievable growth rates. This does require not having a dense government in power too, however.”
Patricia McGirr, Founder at Burnley-based Repossession Rescue Network, said businesses need to be properly backed with hard cash.
She added: “The government and Bank of England’s New Year’s resolutions for 2026 should be written on a Post-it and stuck to the Treasury wall. Stop calling paralysis ‘prudence’. Keeping rates and policy in a holding pattern does not calm markets, it leaves businesses and households stuck waiting for permission to move.
“Back British businesses in cash, not compliments. Being labelled the backbone of the economy is meaningless when lending tightens, taxes rise and support quietly disappears.
“Pick a direction on borrowing and stick to it. Nobody expects miracles, but constant ambiguity makes planning impossible and turns caution into stagnation.
“Acknowledge that people are not spreadsheets. Economic pressure shows up in stress, burnout and broken confidence long before it appears in official data. Measure confidence properly. If businesses are not hiring and households are not moving, there is no confidence, whatever the rhetoric says.”
SMEs are being taxed to death
David Stirling, Independent Financial Adviser at Belfast-based Mint Wealth Ltd, said Labour should go after companies who are avoiding tax.
He continued: “The Chancellor should let SMEs out of the chokehold she has had them in and start to wrestle with the big corporations that avoid paying taxes in this country.
“SMEs are the lifeblood of this country and their owners take all the risks to provide incomes and tax revenues to keep the country afloat. For too long now they have taken the brunt of policy decisions and are being taxed to death.”
Harry Goodliffe, Director at HTG Mortgages, said “more backbone” is needed in 2026.
He added: “The New Year’s resolution both the government and Bank of England should commit to in 2026 is have a bit more backbone. 2025 felt like a year of half-signals and crossed fingers, which just left buyers, lenders and businesses second guessing everything.
“The Bank of England doesn’t need to be perfect on rates, just clearer, and the government needs to stop flirting with housing policy and actually commit to something. Certainty beats constant ‘wait and see’ every single time.”
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash.
