Agency Growth, M&A & Transformation 24th November 2025

The Autumn Budget led the news this week, and has been received positively by the financial markets.
As expected, further tax rises / extending the freeze on income tax thresholds were announced on Thursday.

Areas most impacting businesses and founders

• From April 2026, dividend tax rates rise by 2 percentage points across bands

• £2k cap on salary sacrifice pension contributions, which will lead to significant employee and employer NICs.

• EOTs (employee ownership trust) - Capital Gains Tax relief on disposals to EOT’s reduces from 100% to 50% from next month

• Improvement in EMI scheme limits

• Also the Business Asset Disposal Relief rate will increase from 14% to 18% from April 2026, as announced last year.
  

Market insights from this week

• Improvement in confidence from agencies around their outlook for 2026

• More founders looking to the longer term and exit planning

• Strong uptick in agencies looking to make acquisitions in the next 12 months

• Signs that those businesses adopting AI are seeing significant efficiency gains

• Business investing in their own marketing are seeing the strongest growth
  
  
  

  If you’re looking to invest for growth, either through M&A or internal capabilities around marketing and AI, get in touch with us at hello@bluhalo.com.