UK firms plan price rises as confidence falls to lowest level since Truss budget

The BCC poll found that 63% of firms cited taxation as a worry after the budget, compared with 48% three months earlier. Photograph: Martin Pope/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

More than half of British companies are planning price rises in the next three months, according to research that found UK business confidence has slumped to its lowest since the chaos of Liz Truss’s brief stint as prime minister.

Of 4,800 businesses polled by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), 55% said they expected to increase prices by April, up from 39% in a similar survey in the second half of last year.