Ahead of the new Chancellor John Healey’s first Autumn Statement on October 28, we take the temperature of the local business community to see what’s on their wish list of measures to support growth, investment and confidence…
DEBORAH RICHARDS,
FOUNDER OF MADDISONS RESIDENTIAL
Tunbridge Wells is a wonderful place to live and do business, and I think our priority should be protecting the independent businesses that help make it that way. I would like to see the Chancellor give small businesses greater breathing space, particularly around business rates and the cost of employing people, so that they have the confidence to invest, recruit and grow. Thriving independent shops, restaurants and businesses don’t just support the local economy; they create the character and vibrancy that makes a town like Tunbridge Wells such an attractive place to live.
NEILL THOMAS
PARTNER & MANAGING DIRECTOR, THOMAS MANSFIELD
The Chancellor faces a budget deficit and needs to raise as much tax as possible. In practice, that means encouraging existing businesses to expand and take on more staff, and persuading entrepreneurs to start new ones. But small businesses have been given more burdens, not more encouragement. The National Minimum Wage has gone up again, employer’s National Insurance has risen, and there has been little or no relief from business rates, which are still staggeringly high.
Businesses won’t expand until they have the confidence and the profits to do it. At the moment, both are paper thin.
The question should be what can be done to help firms grow, not what more can be taken from them.
Please, Mr Chancellor, give small business owners a break. Encourage growth and put some energy back into the business community. Don’t make it harder. With a deficit to close, that would be a brave decision, but it is also a reliable way to fill the Treasury’s coffers.
BECKY MORAN
DIRECTOR, TN SALES & TN LETTINGS
As a small independent business, we’d like to see a Budget that genuinely supports our local economy. Reducing employment costs would give businesses more confidence to recruit and retain staff, while VAT relief for hospitality could provide much-needed support to our fantastic local restaurants, pubs and cafés. We’d also welcome help with soaring utility costs, perhaps through the return of sensible energy caps for businesses.
And, of course, as an estate and letting agent, we want measures that get the housing market moving – support for first-time buyers, sensible Stamp Duty reform and greater confidence for landlords to remain and invest in the rental market.
JOSEPH OATES
PARTNER AND HEAD OF CONTENTIOUS, COOPERBURNETT LLP
Most of our clients depend for their livelihoods on business, as does the country. When facing uncertainty, a golden rule in business is to do nothing. Given what has already been visited on business in the form of tax and regulation in two short years, I would hope that this new Chancellor is able to exercise restraint and not impose more restrictions and disincentives on the private sector.
GDP growth is predicted to be 2% this year. In order to maintain and build upon positive signs of recovery, the Chancellor should permit full utilisation of our domestic energy resources and expedite the expansion of Heathrow. If he wants to be truly bold (and politically savvy), he should scrap Stamp Duty Land Tax. The confidence that would unleash would be a great stimulus to a consumer-led recovery.
DANIELLE FRIEND
MANAGING DIRECTOR, CREATE BALANCE ACCOUNTANTS
I think recruitment, pay and AI are huge factors for us in the accountancy and tax sector. The impact AI is having on us will be exponential over the next 18 months to two years – entry-level jobs just won’t exist.
How do you train a junior member of staff if there is no junior-level work to be done? I want the Chancellor to commit to helping businesses employ more young people – they have lots of skills, they just don’t know how to use them yet.
BRIAN KEELEY-WHITING
MANAGING DIRECTOR, WH PUBS
Pubs are not asking for a handout; we are asking for a fair chance. Our sales are holding up, but the cost of employing people has gone up far faster than we can put prices up, and that is where the profit has gone.
The biggest difference the Chancellor could make is to ease employer National Insurance for hospitality and give us a permanent, lower business rates bill for pubs. But the most important thing would be a lower rate of VAT on food and drink, which would let us invest, take on more young people and keep prices sensible for our customers.
Pubs like ours are often the biggest local employer in a village and provide the first job for a lot of youngsters. Far too many pubs are closing and, if we are not careful, that’s all that will happen here – just like the butcher and the post office that disappeared from your village.
EMMA THOMPSON
HEAD OF EMPLOYMENT & EDUCATION AND CO-MANAGING PARTNER,
THACKRAY WILLIAMS
As a business leader advising employers across a wide range of sectors, I see first-hand the challenges businesses face in growing their workforce and investing with confidence. My priority would be a Budget that supports sustainable growth by reducing the cost and administrative burden of employment.
Many of our clients would welcome measures to offset the increased costs and compliance demands arising from forthcoming employment law reforms. Relief on employer National Insurance, targeted incentives for recruitment and retention, and greater investment in skills and apprenticeships would help businesses manage these pressures while continuing to create jobs and invest in their people.
Our clients support stronger workplace protections, but there is concern about the cumulative impact of increased regulation alongside existing cost pressures. The Budget is an opportunity to balance enhanced employee rights with measures that give employers the confidence to hire, invest and grow.
VIKKI HERBERT
HEAD OF REAL ESTATE AND CO-MANAGING PARTNER, THACKRAY WILLIAMS
I would like to see something to help kick-start the property market by allowing first-time buyers to get onto the housing ladder, especially with recent increases in mortgage rates in anticipation that the Bank of England will put up interest rates.
This will, in part, come through the announcement of the ‘Your First Home’ scheme that has been announced, so we are waiting eagerly for news on that front.
SIOBHAN STIRLING
MANAGING DIRECTOR, SHARP MINDS COMMUNICATIONS
I’d like to see meaningful measures to support the nearly one million NEETs – young people aged 16 to 24 not in education, employment or training.
Gen Z is facing an unprecedented existential crisis. Having had their education and significant formative years disrupted by the pandemic, they now face the seismic disruption of AI, meaning a level of career uncertainty that no previous generation has faced.
Moreover, by failing to provide pathways into education, employment or training, we are creating a time bomb of economic inactivity, social exclusion and poor physical and mental health.
Revisiting employers’ NI contributions and creating more opportunities for apprenticeships and vocational training are strategies that I hope the new Prime Minister and Chancellor are prioritising – otherwise we will perpetuate what Alan Milburn found to be a ‘record of failure’.
IAIN LARKINS
PARTNER, CRIPPS
Hospitality and consumer-facing businesses will be watching the upcoming Autumn Statement particularly closely. A warmer tone towards pubs, live music venues and high streets may be welcome, but tone will only go so far. The sector will be looking to the Budget for clarity on business rates, VAT, employment costs and any further support for town centre regeneration. For many operators, confidence will depend on whether the Government can combine ambition with practical relief from cost pressures.
Autumn is an important period. Businesses do not need every answer immediately, but they do need a credible sense of stability. PM Andy Burnham’s first major speech suggested a clearer political project than the previous regime, but confidence will depend on whether that project is matched by fiscal realism, policy detail and a willingness to give businesses enough certainty to plan.
The opportunity for business is to engage early with the themes now emerging, principally devolution, regeneration, workforce reform, consumer confidence and a more constructive European relationship. The risk is assuming that warm words alone will create certainty. The Budget will show whether this government’s first big statement of intent can become a credible plan for growth
