LONDON — Retail, beauty and luxury organizations reacted with dismay to the 2025 budget delivered by U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves on Wednesday and accused the government of failing, once again, to support business.

Although Reeves kept the Labour party’s electoral promise of not raising income tax, she instead offered a package laden with loads of other taxes that will hit middle-earners, homeowners, businesses, employees and tourist-dependent industries such as retail and hospitality.

The government announced plans to freeze income tax thresholds, meaning that more people will be dragged into higher brackets as their salaries increase.

It will also slap extra taxes on employees’ pension contributions, and the funds that employers pay into pension pots, and jack up

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