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Currys CEO says tax changes will prompt outsourcing to India

Currys CEO says tax changes will prompt outsourcing to India

January 16, 2025

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The chief executive of UK electrical retailer Currys said the company will be forced to outsource more UK staff to India as a result of Rachel Reeves’s “tax on jobs”, reports The Telegraph (paywall). CEO Alex Baldock said the rising cost of employing people in the UK meant Currys would rely more on “offshoring” in the near future.

“We’ve already got the best part of 1,000 colleagues in India - all the usual central and IT functions that you would expect - and they do a cracking job for us, and we’re delighted to have them,” Baldock said. “You can expect, as UK people costs inflate, to see more of that, that’s just inevitable.”

Baldock said that while it was important to invest in staff pay, some of the new costs announced by Reeves would be harmful to jobs.

Baldock has previously been a supporter of, and donor to, the opposition Conservative party.

He also warned of potential “unintended consequences” of policies being brought in as part of Angela Rayner’s Employment Rights Bill, which will strengthen workers’ rights from day one in a job and includes new powers for unions. It includes measures such as the introduction of guaranteed hours for workers as part of a crackdown on zero-hours contracts. Baldock said that while the measures “are no doubt well-intentioned”, they risked damaging flexibility for some workers such as students, carers and working parents.