Iceland boss Lord Walker quits cost of living role

The businessman brought in to fix Britain’s cost of living crisis has quit, declaring it “damn hard to get anything done” in Whitehall, the day before Andy Burnham sets out measures to give families more “breathing space” on rising bills.

Lord Walker of Broxton, the executive chairman of Iceland Foods, was appointed by Sir Keir Starmer in February to “work across government” as cost of living champion. Announcing on LinkedIn that his role had “expired” with Starmer’s departure, he warned the new prime minister that he “doesn’t have time for rests and delays”.

His parting verdict on government will ring true for any business owner who has waited months for a policy decision. “Plans are all very good but daily political machinations consume everything,” he wrote, adding that restricted communication flows mean “anyone from the outside with fresh ideas” can be frozen out.

Walker saved his sharpest criticism for the building itself, saying No 10 “as a building is not fit for purpose”. “The 17th Century rabbit-warren design makes collaborative co-working impossible,” he wrote.

His advice to Burnham was to make plans for a No 10 North “more than just a PR exercise”. “I would move the cost of living remit into there and away from the Westminster bubble to make policy work better for every part of the country.”

Walker is not the only business figure heading for the exit. Lord Timpson, former chief executive of the shoe repair and key-cutting chain, is also leaving his role as prisons minister, pointing to “green shoots” in the system and saying he looked forward to returning to lead the family business. For SMEs hoping commercial experience would carry weight inside government, the departure of two of its most prominent business voices within days of a new premiership is not an encouraging signal.

The resignations landed as business groups gave a cautious welcome to Burnham’s first speech as prime minister, in which he spoke of the need to “regain our stability” and a “new economic model”, including a “ten-year plan”, devolution, “stronger public control” of “life’s essentials”, more council homes and “re-industrialising Britain, using public procurement to back British industry”. It follows weeks of business leaders demanding an end to drift and delay during the handover of power.

Their message now is that firms must not be an afterthought. Shevaun Haviland, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: “The cost of living and the cost of doing business are two sides of the same coin. Our surveys show energy and taxation are squeezing businesses, hitting confidence and investment. Easing the cost of doing business will deliver the growth we all want to see.”

Burnham has already pledged a 20 per cent business rates cut for pubs and high street firms, but recruiters want him to go further. Neil Carberry, chief executive of the REC, said “firms across the country need to see action. Over the past few years, businesses have seen a swathe of well-intentioned policies raise costs and dampen hiring, contributing to the rising cost of living people face.”

He urged Burnham to insert “pragmatism into the unworkable elements of the government’s employment law changes, reducing the tax wedge on hiring people, and re-invigorating the industrial strategy with the kind of skills, planning and infrastructure reforms that will get private capital working”. Small firms have long warned the employment law overhaul would hit hiring.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies offered a colder dose of realism. Helen Miller, its director, said: “Seeking to rewire the British state, against a backdrop of constrained public finances and with an in-tray full of domestic and international challenges, will require much more than ambition.”

She added that the government “will need to quickly flesh out the vision of what it wants to achieve and be ruthless in its prioritisation”, warning that generous NHS settlements would mean cuts elsewhere, and that on council housing “the subsidies required won’t come cheap”.

With consumer price inflation still running at 2.8 per cent, Burnham’s breathing space cannot come soon enough, for households or the firms that serve them. Walker’s parting message suggests delivering it from inside the rabbit warren will be the hard part.

Jamie Young

Jamie Young is Senior Reporter at Business Matters, covering SME finance, employment law and Westminster policy since 2016. He has reported on every Budget and Autumn Statement since 2018, helped make sense of the ‘covid era’ and the bounce-back loan scheme from launch through the fraud investigations, and broke the magazine’s coverage of the 2024 late-payment reforms. He joined Business Matters straight from completing his BA in Administration from Exeter University and is NCTJ-qualified. Reach him at jyoung@cbmeg.co.uk