Autumn Statement November 2022 - small business and charity owners respond

I'm currently sat in one of our warm coffee houses in the beautiful market town of Stone, Staffordshire, having invested £000s on a bricks and mortar store, yet hospitality remains one of the most highly taxed sectors in the UK. That does not support growth. The only thing growing is the misalignment between the central Government and the strong hospitality sector in the UK. The devil's in the detail regarding the business rates reform and its impact. Also, much-needed VAT support for the sector been completely ignored. The Government recognise there will be "troubled times ahead", but it seems they take their morning coffee for granted at at time many others don't.

As an estate agent, with the CGT tax allowance to be halved to £6,000 from April 2023, we may see an increase in landlords selling up and second homeowners listing their properties with the hope of completing before April. Landlords, who own property as part of a limited company, will be further penalised as they'll pay more tax on dividends. This, coupled with the rise in corporation tax, will likely lead to more landlords trying to sell their properties. However, with the rising cost of living, first-time buyers will continue to find it challenging to save for a house, which may mean demand will stifle. I expect house prices to drop slightly until late 2024, when there will be a rush of buyers hoping to complete before the stamp duty cuts end. It means estate agents will struggle over the next two years, and cutting the dividend tax relief while increasing corporation tax could mean estate agents may start selling their businesses or winding up during this recession.

By cutting the tax relief on director dividends, the Tories have really got it in for us company directors haven't they? Not content with leaving us to our own devices during the pandemic, they now want to make sure we pay for their mistakes.

In an Autumn statement worthy of a Dallas episode, it turns out it was all a dream and Trussonomics never really happened. Did it? Gone was any pretence at encouraging business growth and instead we saw a budget that frankly could have come from either side of the commons. Yet more stealth tax through frozen allowance rates and an overt tax raid on an already struggling group of moderately well off people with the reduction in the additional rate tax threshold. Yet again there was a missed opportunity to target pension rises specifically at those who need them, rather than a mass giveaway. At a time that many young families are struggling it seems a challenging decision to pass taxpayers' money to those that are better off. In a strange way, however, everyone will go away feeling reassured. Not because this budget is frankly impressive in any respect, but simply because as we have recently seen, it really could have been a lot worse.

Surprisingly positive. He provided us with a clear plan of how we can tackle the cost of living and economic crisis with a focus on 3 clear priorities: - Stability - Growth - And a focus on public services I am really pleased that he highlighted the importance of the UK job market. It is in crisis and has never mattered more to the economy’s prosperity. I could not agree more that employment has not returned to pre-pandemic levels with businesses now needing to fill their vacancies more than ever. I am therefore pleased that an investigation by Mel Stride and his team at the Work and Pensions department will be trying to get to the bottom of why 630,000 people have left the workforce since the pandemic. We also know that there is a sharp increase in economically inactive working aged adults who are not currently in the workplace. These are made up of students, parents, those on long term sick and pensioners so a focus to encourage as many of those workers back into the workplace would be such a positive step in easing the talent shortage we are experiencing today. I was pleased to hear that Sir Michael Barber has been instructed to introduce a skills reform programme. I have always believed that students need to be equipped with not only skills applicable to the workplace but also with life skills and more importantly financial skills – what is the minimum living wage – what is the rate of income tax, how does NI work even how do I apply for a mortgage and what can I expect to pay as a homeowner. These are all skills that we all take for granted and have learnt from experience but we should be giving students the heads up so they can progress quicker and develop. Jeremy Hunt didn’t touch on immigration. Immigration should be seen as a tool to alleviate shortages as well as boost growth and international investment. We also need to extend work visas to at least five years and establish an immigration route for entry level skilled workers in shortage sectors. In a nutshell, to boost the economy we need to get more people into the workplace, tackle the skills shortage and to do this we need to invest in the generation of the future.