La Fosse CEO: Tech hire aid key amid possible 'do-nothing' budget

La Fosse's CEO expects the UK government's Autumn Budget to bring little change, even as employers call for incentives to hire and train in technology and artificial intelligence (AI). Ollie Whiting said the Budget, due on 28 October, is likely to be cautious given geopolitical uncertainty and pressure on public finances.

Chancellor John Healey will deliver his first Budget on 28 October and has said it will meet the government's fiscal rules. The Office for Budget Responsibility will publish its economic and fiscal forecast that day. Prime Minister Andy Burnham has warned that difficult decisions lie ahead after inflation rose to 3.1 per cent in August.

"I think this is just going to be a do-nothing budget. I think there's so much geopolitical uncertainty at the moment that John Healey, the Chancellor, will be saying, 'Look, we've achieved growth in the UK. Look what's happening in France, Germany [U.S., and Canada]. We don't want to be there,'" said Ollie Whiting, CEO of La Fosse.

Whiting added that the UK has recorded some GDP growth this year, which he expects to support a steady approach. He said high inflation and government borrowing leave limited fiscal headroom for new initiatives, while healthcare, welfare and defence are all placing heavy demands on spending.

He said budget decisions matter to the recruitment sector because tax and public spending shape corporate hiring. If more money is directed to healthcare, for example, companies in and around the sector tend to need technology and change talent, and turn to recruiters to supply it.

Around 80 per cent of La Fosse's business is technology recruitment, with the remaining 20 per cent made up of talent solutions: managing technology teams for clients and training staff through apprenticeships and entry-level programmes. 

Whiting wants the Budget to include incentives for growth, starting with changes to how companies can use the Apprenticeship Levy, including specific incentives for tech and AI-led apprenticeships.

He also called for the UK to follow the United States by introducing tax incentives for companies investing in tech and AI, so the UK can close the gap with the U.S. and China on AI expansion in the tech industry.

To do this, Whiting said the government will need to create room for headcount growth through tax incentives for organisations, including for R&D, apprenticeships, and investment.

"Wage inflation is outgrowing GDP growth, which means it's more expensive to hire staff in niche areas," he said. "We should be looking to skills inflation, which is therefore dialling up people's skills versus just dialling up wages and making it uncompetitive when it comes to hiring."

Whiting said customers have little incentive to hire entry-level talent and asked where organisations will stand in 10 or 20 years without it. He warned that, without government action, the trend could lead to mass job displacement.

Whiting said entry-level workers could be AI natives, and may be easier to train on the technology than a developer with 15 years' experience. He suggested apprenticeships and agentic AI routes could bring people into the workforce earlier, and said the education system may not be set up to produce the talent needed.

He described the current shift as a two-to-four-year transformation, compared with the 10 to 15 years it took for the benefits of the World Wide Web to be realised.

"We have a very capable, flexible workforce in the UK. ... We need to make it easy for that talent to be deployed, and not have lots of tax hurdles [impeding] individuals, contractors and freelancers to work freely," said Whiting.

"In periods of change and transformation, customers want the ability to hire flexibly versus on a permanent workforce. We need to see incentives that are helping stimulate that growth versus hinder it."