The MP for Bromsgrove and the Villages has met with local businesses to answer questions and discuss the impact of the Autumn Budget . 

Organised by the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce, businesses were given the opportunity to take part in a Q&A with MP Bradley Thomas. 

A variety of topics were discussed at the meeting including the government's decision to increase National Insurance contributions for employers, the role of further education colleges, housebuilding and the skills agenda. 

Bradley Thomas said: "The government's anti-jobs Budget is a tax on jobs. By hiking National Insurance contributions for employers, Make UK has warned 'it will cause many to think twice about recruiting, make pay increases for employees much less likely and lead to some job losses for working people.

"Businesses have very real and legitimate concerns about this hike in contributions and I will be relaying them back to the Treasury. 

"Hospitality and retail businesses are being punished further too with an increase in business rates.

"By setting business rate relief at 40 per cent when it was 75 per cent under the previous government, our pubs, hospitality and retail businesses will now see their business rate bills going up with a typical pub paying an extra £6,000 per year just to operate.

"As the local MP, I will always back our businesses and ensure they can operate in an environment where they can thrive, invest and create jobs." 

Labour has pledged that the Budget will put Britain on a "new path" that will change the long-term trajectory of the country for the better. 

In a speech about the Budget last month, Keir Starmer said: "If people want to criticise the path we choose, that’s their prerogative. But let them then spell out a different direction.

"If they think the state has grown too big, let them tell working people which public services they would cut. If they don’t see our long-term investment in infrastructure as necessary, let them explain to working people how they would grow the economy for them.

"This is an economic plan that will change the long-term trajectory on British growth for the better."