A leading British entrepreneur has cancelled £20million of investment as Rachel Reeves launches an inheritance tax raid on family firms.
Steve Perez, the founder of Global Brands, the drinks company behind Hooch and VK, was planning to expand his plant at Clay Cross in Derbyshire and to build an extension and spar at the nearby Peak Edge Hotel in Chesterfield.
The investments would have created nearly 100 jobs – adding to the 400 he already employs.
But the projects have been abandoned after the Chancellor announced plans to hit family firms with inheritance tax of 20 per cent from April next year.
‘I have absolutely stopped investing in my business, because the more I invest the bigger the tax bill my family are going to have to pay,’ said Perez, 68, who set up Global Brands in 1997.
‘There are unemployed people here in Derbyshire who if it wasn’t for this policy would be employed. We are not employing people and growing the business. The business is on ice.
Change of mind: Steve Perez is the founder of Global Brands, the drinks company behind Hooch
‘The people they are hurting most are the working people.
‘The Government just doesn’t understand. It is impossible for us as a business to plan for the long term because we don’t know how much the tax bill will be. But the better the business does, the larger the tax bill.
‘They say they are going for growth. This is the absolute opposite. I’m not going to grow my business because the more I grow it the bigger the tax bill my family have got.’
Perez is planning to leave the business to his son but fears the family could be landed with an inheritance tax bill of between £10million and £20million.
That is because of reforms to so-called ‘business property relief’ (BPR) and ‘agricultural property relief’ (APR) announced in the Budget last year.
The changes – dubbed the ‘family firm tax’ and ‘family farm tax’ – mean that from April 2026 any assets worth over £1million will be hit with death duties of 20 per cent.
The move has triggered outrage among farmers who have driven convoys of tractors through central London in protest.
Family firms are now also making their voices heard.
Perez warns his family may not be able to afford the tax bill when he dies.
‘So, the business will have to be sold,’ he said. ‘I haven’t sold it because I am responsible to my employees and unfortunately the manufacturing and the business will be moved away from Chesterfield. I don’t want my employees to be made redundant because a multinational has bought the business or my family has had to cut chunks out to pay a tax bill.’
Perez urged the Chancellor to change tack in the Budget this week.
‘This is a bigger problem for the working people than the millionaires who the government are trying to go after because it’s their jobs and futures that are being put at risk,’ he said.
‘She should be honest and say she can see what has happened, which is growth has slowed and unemployment has gone up. What she needs to do is say: ‘Actually, I’ve got it wrong.’
‘Then we can get investing again and employment people again.’
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