Andrew Dwerryhouse, managing director at Liverpool-based clothing and merchandise company Wild Thang, said businesses had faced the challenges of rising costs and inflation in recent years and now “want stability”.

“Stability means we can plan for the future,” he said.

“Plan for the long term rather than reacting to the short term.”

He continued: “When you’ve got high bills and rising costs all the time it’s very hard to plan investments for the future. While we’ve committed significantly it has been really challenging to make the numbers add up.”

“I really want it to be that fresh start and you’ve got to be excited about the future but you’ve got to trust the government to deliver that.”