UK to pursue training tax plan

The UK government is pressing ahead with plans to impose a levy on large employers from early next year to help pay for training, prompting dismay from business groups who want the tax delayed to soften the impact of Brexit.

Britain faces the prospect of a recession following June’s vote to leave the EU, with uncertainty about the country’s new relationship with the bloc expected to cause firms to defer investment and consumers to slow spending.

To ward off a contraction in the world’s fifth-largest economy, the Bank of England last week launched a monetary stimulus package and the government has indicated it will relax plans to cut public spending.