Staffordshire businessman and self-made multi-millionaire – Mo Chaudry arrived in the UK as an immigrant, unable to speak a word of English, aged just 8.5-years-old.
Moving first to Luton, then to Shropshire, Mo eventually settled in Staffordshire from Pakistan with his family. Aged 9 he started school overcoming play-ground racism and the language barrier to eventually gain a university education.
Now, the married father of three owns a portfolio of businesses, in the finance, health and fitness sectors, and his 2025 net worth exceeds £170 million pounds. He also employs 300 people across his business portfolio.
The 65-year-old has been listed in the 100 most successful people in the Midlands and among the 100 most successful British Asian business-people in the UK.
It’s far cry from the £10 a week Stoke-on-Trent bedsit he was living in at the very start of his career. Here Mo shares his thoughts ahead of the Chancellor John Healey’s budget on Wednesday.
It’s time to back Britain’s businesses, not burden them
If the Chancellor really wants to get Britain growing again, the answer is staring him in the face. Stop making life so difficult for the very people who create jobs, generate wealth and keep our economy moving.
Ahead of the Budget, I would urge the Government to ask itself a simple question. Are we doing enough to encourage people to work hard, take risks, start businesses and succeed? Or have we created a system that increasingly penalises ambition and discourages enterprise? I fear it is the latter.
Having spent much of my life building businesses, I know only too well the challenges of creating something from nothing. It takes determination, investment, sacrifice and, above all, confidence that your efforts will be worthwhile.
Yet across Shropshire and the West Midlands, our independent retailers, cafés, restaurants and small businesses are facing an increasingly difficult battle to survive.
Walk through any town centre and you will see the consequences. Empty premises, businesses struggling with rising costs and independent traders wondering whether they can afford to keep their doors open.
Higher employment costs, energy bills, national insurance contributions and business rates are making it difficult for businesses to keep their heads above water.
Research into Britain’s licensed hospitality sector revealed a net loss of 382 premises in the final three months of 2025 alone. That’s equivalent to more than four fewer venues every day.
Behind every closure is typically an entrepreneur who took a chance, employees who relied on their wages and a community that has lost another part of its identity.
And what are we doing to help them?
Business rates are a perfect example of everything that is wrong with our approach. We are still operating a system that places a substantial tax burden on businesses simply because they occupy physical premises.
The Government has introduced lower business rates multipliers for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, which is welcome. But I believe these reforms fall well short of the radical overhaul our high streets desperately need.
Independent shops and hospitality businesses are competing against online operators with entirely different cost structures, yet we continue to place enormous financial pressure on those investing in our town centres.
If we are serious about saving our high streets, we need more than tinkering around the edges. We need bold reform, substantial further reductions in business rates and genuine incentives for people to open and grow businesses.
But the Chancellor must also recognise that economic growth isn’t simply about how much money the Government collects. It is about how wisely that money is spent.
Take our welfare system. The Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts spending of around £353 billion in 2026/27, including pensions, disability benefits and other essential support.
Of course, we must protect people who genuinely cannot work or who need help through difficult circumstances.
But we must also ask whether the system is doing enough to help those who can work overcome the barriers holding them back.
Our welfare system should be a safety net, not a permanent destination for people who could, with the right support, become financially independent.
We need to make work pay, improve access to training and give people the confidence and opportunity to build a better future. That requires meaningful reform, not simply increasing spending year after year.
The same principle of accountability should apply to the way our public services operate.
The NHS and social care are vital, and I have nothing but admiration for the people delivering care on the frontline. But admiration should not prevent us from questioning whether these enormous organisations are being run as efficiently as they could be.
In business, you cannot simply keep increasing expenditure without looking at performance, waste and duplication. The public sector should be no different?
We need to strip away unnecessary bureaucracy, remove overlapping management structures and ensure health and social care work together rather than operating in separate silos.
Every pound saved through greater efficiency is money that could be redirected towards patients and services.
And there is another area where I believe we are failing to think ambitiously enough: our young people.
The latest figures show that 981,000 young people aged 16 to 24 across the UK are not in education, employment or training. That should alarm every one of us.
We cannot afford to have a generation growing up without the confidence, skills or belief that they can build a successful future.
The Government is expanding its network of youth hubs, which is a positive step. But I want to see us go much further and make these centres genuinely transformational.
Yes, education and careers advice are important. But let’s bring successful businesspeople, entrepreneurs, engineers, tradespeople and employers directly into these centres.
Let young people hear from someone who started with nothing and built a successful company. Let them see what can be achieved through hard work, determination and a willingness to take risks.
Show them that becoming an engineer, starting a business, learning a trade or developing a new idea can transform their lives.
Too often, young people are told about their limitations rather than their possibilities. We need to change that mindset.
I firmly believe ambition can be inspired, confidence can be built and opportunity can change lives. But we must be prepared to invest in practical solutions rather than simply creating another layer of publicly funded bureaucracy.
A thriving business community creates employment. Employment can reduce dependency. Greater economic activity generates tax revenue. And a more efficient public sector means more money can reach the people who genuinely need support.
That is how you build a stronger, more prosperous country.
The Chancellor has a choice. Continue asking businesses and working people to shoulder an ever-increasing financial burden, or recognise that the route to prosperity lies in encouraging enterprise, rewarding hard work and making the state more efficient.
We don’t need another Budget that simply finds new ways to raise taxes.
We need one that gives people the confidence to invest, employ, innovate and succeed.
