The Employee Share Ownership Centre has submitted three targeted papers to HM Treasury ahead of the Autumn Budget 2025. Each proposes practical reforms to strengthen and modernise the UK’s framework for employee share ownership. This follows on from a constructive meeting with HM Treasury in September.

1. Tax-advantaged employee share schemes

The Employee Share Ownership Centre’s Autumn Budget 2025 submission proposes targeted improvements to the UK’s established tax-advantaged share plan regimes - EMI, CSOP, SAYE and SIP - to make them more accessible, flexible and effective. The proposals aim to simplify administration, reflect modern patterns of employment, and promote productivity, growth and fiscal responsibility. They draw on the experience of Centre members and advisers and are designed to remove unnecessary barriers to participation without additional fiscal cost.

2. Strengthening the Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) framework

Our proposals aim to sustain the integrity of the EOT model while removing practical obstacles to its adoption by responsible employers. They include clarifying the qualifying conditions for trustees, modernising the treatment of hybrid structures, and supporting longer-term employee engagement within EOT-controlled businesses.

These reforms would reinforce the UK’s reputation for fair and sustainable employee ownership, encourage succession planning among SMEs, and help more companies embed employee voice and accountability at board level.

3. Reforming Capital Gains Tax to support employee ownership & PISCES recommendation

The third of the Employee Share Ownership Centre’s Autumn Budget 2025 submissions considers how targeted reform of Capital Gains Tax could stimulate wider employee ownership and improve business resilience.

The proposals recommend aligning CGT treatment with long-term employee shareholding objectives, simplifying reliefs for employee trusts and plan participants, and ensuring that fiscal incentives support both direct and indirect models of ownership.

By reducing complexity and promoting reinvestment, these measures would strengthen the ecosystem for employee share ownership across the UK, enhancing productivity, retention and the distribution of capital growth.

The Centre is particularly grateful to David Craddock, David Pett, Jennifer Rudman and Damian Carnell for their input.