Next’s chief executive has warned the government against further tax rises in next month’s Budget as the UK retailer raised its profit outlook for the fourth time this financial year. Lord Simon Wolfson said on Thursday that “further tax increases only risk stifling growth — and lower growth is likely to only worsen government finances — a vicious circle”. There were “only two effective ways out of this predicament: control spending or boost growth, preferably both”, he said as Next posted half-year results.

Chancellor John Healey is preparing the UK for a painful Budget next month as the Middle East and Ukraine wars push up borrowing costs. But Wolfson said that although it might be tempting to increase taxes on investment, such a move “will reduce investment in the UK, and that will be bad for employment and bad for growth”. Wolfson, a Conservative peer, was one of many UK bosses to criticise former chancellor Rachel Reeves’ changes to national insurance in the October 2024 Budget, warning that it could lead to fewer jobs.

Next has said it faced £67mn in added costs as a result of those measures, including higher employers’ national insurance contributions. His comments on Thursday came as the company, which has roughly 450 stores and employs more than 43,000 full-time and part-time staff, posted a 10.5 per cent increase in profits to £569mn for its first six months to July. Group sales were up 9 per cent year on year to £3.5bn.

Total full-price sales rose 7.7 per cent, boosted by clothing purchases for the hot summer weather. The retailer now expects full-price sales growth of 5.8 per cent in its second half, higher than its previous forecast of 5 per cent. But it lowered its sales growth estimate for the UK in the second half from 2.8 per cent to 2 per cent.

The group, whose shares have increased by a quarter over the past year, raised its profit before tax guidance for its year to January 2027 by £12mn to £1.255bn.