Member Article

Spring budget by Scott Cooper of G3 Group

“We predominantly wanted to see two things from the Chancellor’s first budget – reformed business rates and economic stability ahead of Brexit negotiations with the European Union.

So, Mr Hammond has left us with mixed feelings. He went some way to helping small companies which are affected by business rates, by limiting bill increases and offering a funding pot of £300m for special cases.

But for those companies that need a lot of warehouse space to operate – including manufacturers and auction houses – there hasn’t been much promise that rates will improve. Not only has this disappointed us, but many of the region’s other automotive businesses too.

However, there are a couple of positives which we’re very pleased about. Firstly, the £90m pledged towards improving the road conditions in the north is fantastic. We had hoped that the Chancellor would put some money aside for this – it will help workers travel more quickly between our region’s towns and cities, in turn boosting productivity.

Plus, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has raised its economic forecasts for this year to 2% from 1.4%. This has given us – and hopefully the rest of the UK too – belief in our economy’s ability to thrive, post-Brexit. After all, confidence plays a huge part in consumer and business spending, which affects the economy as a whole.“

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Katie Mallinson .