CIMA urges decisive action to restore confidence and unlock UK growth ahead of the Spring Forecast

23 February 2026, London — The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) is calling on the UK Government to use the upcoming Spring Forecast to reset the UK’s economic trajectory for 2026, restore business confidence, and unlock the country’s growth potential.

In a letter to Chancellor Rachel Reeves, CIMA Secretary General, Andrew Harding, outlined six key policy priorities designed to incentivise employment, investment, and innovation:

• Restoring business confidence through policy certainty, clarity, and effective communication

• Supporting investment and competitiveness through business taxation and reliefs

• Implementing a simpler and fairer personal tax framework to support work investment and growth

• Supporting SMEs to unlock growth

• Closing the skills gap

• Developing a coordinated productivity strategy

Andrew Harding, FCMA, CGMA, said: “The Spring Forecast is a vital opportunity for the Government to rebuild confidence and commit to a long-term, pro-growth strategy. We consistently hear from businesses that they need stability, clarity, and policy certainty to plan ahead and invest for growth.

“By ensuring the UK has a competitive business tax framework, simplifying the personal tax system, offering targeted SME support, and driving a step change in skills provision, the Government can send a powerful message for 2026. The UK cannot miss this opportunity to support the SME sector, unlock private investment, raise productivity, and build a stronger, more competitive economy.”

CIMA’s key recommendations to the Chancellor include:

Restoring business confidence through policy certainty, clarity, and effective communication

• Create a ‘Whole Economy Tax, Policy and Regulation Roadmap’ covering all business-critical areas (all taxation, skills, infrastructure, industrial strategy and regulatory reform).

• Strengthen government-to-business communication, ensuring policy measures, consultations and support schemes are clearly explained, accessible and consistently promoted, especially for SMEs.

• Coordinate national and regional communication, aligning devolved and local strategies with national policy to give businesses a coherent picture.

Business taxation and reliefs – supporting investment and competitiveness

• Mitigate the reduction of the Writing Down Allowance (WDA) scheduled from 2026, and ensure relief is available on leased and long-life assets, safeguarding investment momentum in capital-intensive sectors.

• Commit to structural business rates reform to reduce the disproportionate burden on property dependent sectors and better reflect modern business models and high street regeneration.

• Strengthen incentives for growth capital, including revisiting reductions to Venture Capital Trust (VCT) relief and exploring complementary measures to improve access to scaleup finance.

Personal taxation – implementing a simpler and fairer framework to support work investment and growth

• Reduce and remove tax cliff edges, especially those made worse by frozen thresholds and interactions with childcare tapers, to improve work incentives and reduce distortions.

• End or phase out frozen thresholds, and publish a clear timetable for re-indexation, to limit fiscal drag and stabilise wage expectations and labour costs.

• Provide long-term stability on salary sacrifice and pension taxation, preventing sudden shocks to employer costs and protecting pension saving.

Supporting SMEs to unlock growth

• Reinstate and modernise the Growth Accelerator Scheme, giving SMEs subsidised access to coaching, strategic advice, finance expertise, digital adoption and scaleup planning.

• Expand and strengthen the Business Growth Service as a clear, trusted one-stop shop for mentoring, advice and streamlined access to relevant schemes.

Closing the skills gap

• Reform Level 7 apprenticeship funding for under 25s so employers can fully utilise it, remove unnecessary restrictions and ensure funding bands reflect the real cost of high-quality professional training.

• Improve flexibility and utilisation of the Growth and Skills Levy, enabling levy funds to be used more easily for shorter, modular, and high value professional programmes tied to productivity and technology adoption.

• Extend the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) to include professional body training and Level 7 qualifications and expand eligibility to providers registered through the Growth and Skills Levy.

Developing a coordinated productivity strategy

• Establish a UK Productivity Commission to provide independent, evidence-based advice and sustained focus-based advice and coordinate policy to improve productivity based advice and sustained focus.

• Publish a UK wide Productivity Strategy aligned with policy on skills, investment, innovation, and regional growth to convert ambition into delivery.

Read CIMA’s full Spring Forecast recommendations here.