'NI hike will cost 10,000 store jobs'

AROUND 10,000 jobs could be lost on the High Street thanks to the hike in National Insurance contributions, retailers claim.

The British Retail Consortium, in a meeting with the Bank of England, said higher NI costs would not be passed onto consumers because of competition. The companies would have to absorb the costs instead, which would hit investment and jobs.

'We said at the time that the increase in National Insurance was a tax on jobs,' said BRC director general Bill Moyes. 'The Bank of England got hard evidence of that today.'

Chancellor Gordon Brown unveiled plans in the Budget to raise NI contributions from workers and employers by one percentage point, from next April. The Government has said it wants to pump the cash into the National Health Service.

Last week Bank of England deputy governor Mervyn King said companies were likely to respond to the higher NI costs by limiting wage rises.