The CBI says businesses across the UK are absorbing cost pressures through shrinking margins, weaker investment and cuts to employment as demand stays soft.
UK businesses are being squeezed from both sides — costs rising, demand falling — with firms unable to pass on higher prices to customers, according to the Confederation of British Industry. The warning comes from CBI Senior Lead Economist Ben Jones, whose comments were posted by the CBI on social media and reflect a pattern of downbeat assessments the organisation has made throughout 2025.
The figures show the pressure is already feeding into business decisions. The CBI’s August 2025 Growth Indicator recorded a weighted balance of minus 15 per cent, meaning private sector firms expected activity to fall modestly in the three months to November — extending a run of negative predictions that began in late 2024. Separately, UK manufacturers reported the sharpest fall in new orders in six years in July, with margins squeezed across the sector.
That’s a problem for Kent.
The county’s mix of manufacturing, retail, logistics and business services leaves it exposed to exactly the conditions the CBI describes. Businesses tied to the Port of Dover, the Eurotunnel corridor and the M20 supply chain face the added weight of trade-related uncertainty on top of rising input costs. If employers respond by slowing recruitment or cutting hours, Kent’s labour market could feel it before any national figures reflect the shift.
The CBI’s wider commentary in 2025 linked sluggish growth to persistent trade uncertainty, a loosening labour market and slowing real income growth — none of which point to a quick recovery. UK GDP expanded by 0.4 per cent in May 2024 according to ONS data, but the CBI said at the time that recovery would likely be slower in the second half of the year. The figures since have not challenged that view.
But the CBI stops short of predicting a sharp downturn. The language is cautious: activity expected to fall “modestly,” investment described as “weaker” rather than collapsing. So this reads less like a crisis and more like a slow grind — the kind that doesn’t make headlines until the redundancy notices start arriving.
Source: @CBItweets