The chief executive of BT has said telecoms operators in the UK pay as much as 10 times the amount in “government-inflicted costs” than those operating in comparable European countries.
Allison Kirkby said the industry had already hit the “peak” it could handle in costs imposed by the government, and warned that the November budget could be “very difficult” for the chancellor, Rachel Reeves.
“We pay in business rates, energy levies and other costs associated with regulation and compliance 10 times the amount our peers pay in countries like Germany and the Netherlands,” she said, speaking at the Connected Britain conference in London on Wednesday. “So we’re already at peak government-inflicted costs.”
Kirkby, who joined BT’s board in 2019 and took over from Philip Jansen as chief executive at the beginning of last year, was formerly the boss of the Swedish telecoms company Telia.
There has been widespread speculation that Reeves will have no choice but to raise taxes to plug a £20bn hole in public finances when she reveals her next budget on 26 November.
BT has previously said that last year’s budget, which increased employers’ national insurance contributions and raised the minimum wage, added £100m to costs.
In 2023, BT revealed that it was hoping to slim down its 130,000 global workforce to between 75,000 and 90,000 workers by 2030 as it aimed to shave billions of pounds in costs.
BT employs about 80,000 staff in the UK.
Kirkby, who is an adviser on the government’s Board of Trade, also said that planning reforms were needed to make it easier to introduce large-scale infrastructure projects.
BT is pouring about £15bn into the rollout of 5G and full-fibre networks across the UK, with the latter handled by its Openreach subsidiary.
Kirkby is the latest in a string of business leaders to put pressure on the government prior to the budget.
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Earlier on Wednesday, Dave Ricks, chief executive of the US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, said the UK was “probably the worst country in Europe” for drug prices.
His comments came as big pharmaceutical companies have ditched or paused almost £2bn in planned UK investments so far this year.
Earlier this month CS Venkatakrishnan, the chief executive of Barclays, said the government needed to limit pay rises in the public sector and resist further targeting of banks with tax increases.