Conservative response to Reform UK’s business and energy press conference

A Conservative Party spokesman said:

“Reform are a one-man band without the strong team needed to create a plan for business. As the government has shown, no plan means higher taxes, higher spending and more borrowing.

“Reform's sweeping nationalisation of British industry by ‘wiping out' shareholders will cost pensioners, investors and savers thousands and take Britain back to the 1970s.

“Only the Conservatives have a leader with a backbone, the strong team and a plan to axe the carbon tax to cut electricity bills by 20 per cent, scrap net zero and unleash business from the job destroying Employment Rights Act.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

Reform will ‘wipe out' shareholders when nationalising:

• Reform said they would ‘wipe out shareholders' when nationalising businesses, wiping out people's hard earned savings and pension. FARAGE: ‘Water's a different case. That's Thames Water, who have lost all credibility, morally and financially. And our plan was, as I say, it wouldn't cost us anything. We'd wipe out the shareholders and look for new partners' (Reform Press Conference, 3 November 2025, archived).

The Conservatives have a plan to cut red tape, slash tax and reduce energy bills:

• The Conservatives will repeal swathes of the Employment Bill to reduce the burden on small businesses. Labour's Employment Rights Bill is set to cost businesses £5 billion, increase unemployment, reduce economic growth and see more industrial action. That is why we will repeal all sections in the Bill which give trade unions sweeping powers and consult business on removing the rest.

• The Conservatives will scrap green reporting requirements on businesses helping them to save billions of pounds. The majority of businesses, including those working in the sector, believe that ESG reporting requirements are too complex. That is why we will scrap all ESG reporting requirements, instruct financial regulators to remove green requirements and more closely monitor ESG regulations. The cost of just three reporting requirements to business is £300 million a year (Mitie, News, 22 March 2024, link; BEIS, Impact Assessment, 18 July 2018, link; BEIS, Impact Assessment, 31 October 2023, link; BEIS, Impact Assessment, 1 October 2021, link).

• The Conservatives will introduce a permanent 100 per cent business rates relief for the Retail, Leisure and Hospitality (RHL) Sector. 250,000 businesses will benefit from the relief, delivering substantial savings that can then be reinvested in better premises, more staff and lower prices, and lifting thousands out of business rates altogether. The relief would be capped at £110,000 per business. 

• The Conservatives will reverse the Family Business Death Tax. We will reverse the reduction in Business Property Relief and Agricultural Property Relief to make sure that family businesses can be passed down (Kemi Badenoch, Business Property Relief Summit, 16 December 2024, link; British Chamber of Commerce Speech, 25 June 2025, archived).

• The Conservatives will introduce a £5,000 First Jobs Bonus, attracting young people into the workplace and helping them save for a home. We will put the first £5,000 of National Insurance paid by any British citizen starting their first job into a personal savings account, earmarked to help them purchase a home or for future savings.

• The Conservatives will introduce our Cheap Power Plan will cut electricity bills by 20 per cent, saving the average restaurant £5,500 and the average pub £1,100. By axing the Carbon Tax (UK Emissions Trading Scheme and Carbon Price Support on electricity generation) and scrapping the Renewable Obligation Certificate scheme, we will cut electricity prices by 20 per cent, saving the average hospitality business thousands of pounds (Conservative Party Analysis of DESNZ and LCCC data, 26 September 2025, available on request; Ofgem, Policy cost allowance methodology, accessed 26 September 2025, link).