by business editor Trevor Sturgess

Kent firms are calling on the Government to scrap a planned "tax on jobs".

Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce - which has hundreds of members across Ashford, Canterbury, Maidstone and west Kent - has joined other leading business groups signing a petition against the one per cent hike in employer National Insurance Contributions (NIC) from April 2011.

The increase was announced by Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer, as a way of cutting the UK's huge financial deficit.

Jo James, Kent Invicta's chief executive, said business fully understood stringent measures would have to be taken to address the deficit, but only when business recovery could support them.

She said: "Although officially or technically we are out of recession, Kent companies are still trading in difficult circumstances and unfortunately the effects are going to be felt for sometime to come."

"The Government should be looking at ways to encourage business and business growth not hinder it with further taxes and legislation. It is businesses that will get the country out of recession, the longer they have their hands tied behind their backs by Government, the longer the recovery will take."

The business coalition is concerned the NIC increase will deter employers from taking on staff at a time when jobs are in short supply.

Their petition - at www.no-nics-rise.co.uk - says the NIC increase is a "tax on jobs that will discourage companies of all sizes from taking on new staff at a critical point in our economic recovery".

It urges the Government to work with business groups to find alternative ways to close the UK's budget deficit, "beginning with a credible plan to reduce inefficiency in public sector spending".

It adds: "Any government has to realise that additional taxes on businesses, especially small-and medium-sized companies, must be a last resort, not an easy way forward. Further rises in NI mean fewer jobs, more people signing on, and a slower recovery for UK plc."

Organisations signing the petition include the Confederation of British Industry, the Institute of Directors, the Federation of Small Businesses, the British Retail Consortium, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Forum of Private Business, and the Recruitment Employment Confederation.