Mini-Budget - what do you want to see?

The Treasury is announcing up to £150bn of subsidies for fuel bills as well as £30bn of tax cuts. It would be good to know how they intend to pay for all this. If it's through borrowing, why should we not just take all our money out of the country before the currency collapses?

Tax cuts will no doubt ease some pressure for businesses, but it’s hard to see how this alone will stimulate economic growth. The big question we should be asking is whether those tax cuts bring enough relief to the small businesses that need it most. Small businesses need meaningful support, not just with cashflow but with measures that enable them to innovate, grow and compete globally. They’re back in survival mode and that creates caution, stunting growth and ultimately economic recovery. We need a plan from the Government that looks at the bigger picture. Our former Chancellor hinted at this back in the Spring Statement, and whilst conditions have changed since then, businesses need consistency to feel confident. Yes, they need support with overheads, particularly rising costs, but they also need a Government that is behind them, that creates stability and conditions where they can be bold, ambitious and innovative. That is how we stimulate the economy.

We would love to see a reduction in duty on petrol. We are a small team in rural Cumbria of 15 people. We want to serve our customers for as many hours as possible, but currently the team are car sharing, which means that we have to plan rotas around groups of 4 people. That in turn limits our opening hours. That one thing would increase our customer and employee satisfaction.

Consistent bailing outs will only work if the hole in the boat is not too big. The hole in the boat is too big. Of the big 6 energy companies, only one has British ownership. Way more than half of England's water industry is owned by overseas organisations. Approximately 70% of UK rail routes are owned by foreign companies. We have been sold down the river in a leaky boat. Friday's budget needs to address this AND the situation now.

Why don’t they raise the level of income before any tax is paid to an amount that people need to support themselves instead of taxing them then refunding it through tax credits and universal credit? Makes no sense at all. I’m a self-employed single parent. I pay £85 a week to HMRC in tax and national insurance but get roughly the same back in universal credit. Utterly bonkers. The running costs involved in this weird system must be astronomical.

£30bn of tax cuts sounds great, until the Bank Of England then hikes interest rates to essentially eradicate their impact to stop any further increase in inflation that such a big lump of fiscal stimulus would cause. We appear to be in a bizarre scenario where the new administration want to stimulate growth, which would generally generate a rise in inflation, but the Bank of England is mandated by that same Government to maintain inflation at an amount far lower than its current level. This means one arm is consistently undoing the work of the other.

I would like to see: an increase in the Inheritance Tax allowance so less people have to pay this unpopular tax, an increase in the pensions Lifetime Allowance so that normal hardworking people are not punished for saving for their retirement, and an increase in the Income Tax higher rate tax threshold so that hardworking Brits are not dragged into this tax.

At the very least I'd like to see an increase in Universal Credit. We need to protect those who'll struggle the most this winter. Rowing back on Sunak's proposed corporation tax rises is also a good idea. We'll only get growth and improve living standards if we incentivise enterprise and job creation, not deter it. If the government are really serious about getting businesses to pay more tax, address the elephant in the room, the scandalous levels of offshore tax evasion, which have been aided and abetted by successive UK governments.

As a small business owner, we would definitely like to see more targeted help with our energy bills, post-Brexit shipping duty and a freeze or lower increment in raising the minimum wage, as this will help us to minimise our overheads. Footfall has dropped somewhat as some people have delayed going on holiday and many are worried about the economy. We have absorbed some price hikes however this is not sustainable for the short or long term.

Like the majority of the public, I want to see a windfall tax on the energy companies and that money spent on renewables so we don't end up in this mess again.

The tax cuts are welcome to most households and small businesses but I would like to see more economy boosting green measures. Big incentives to install home solar with batteries could help boost economic growth and also reduce household demand from the grid. Surely this would be a win win in the current energy crisis.

And like that, the credit crunch and global financial crash of 2008 are forgotten. All of the measures that were implemented to prevent a re-occurrence have been swept away. With the removal of the cap on bankers' bonuses, we see the last significant measure removed. It seems that everyone has forgotten why the restrictions were put in place, it was because bonuses were found to be a contributing factor to the banks' practices that directly led to the GFC. Bonuses promote short-term behaviours and hence risk taking to generate profit as quickly as possible with no implications for sustainability. To say that large bonuses disappeared is not exactly correct, either, they were replaced by longer term methods of pay that often-included lock in periods. As someone who spent years repairing some of the damage done in 2008, it is very concerning that just at the point the banks are back on a stable footing, the government is removing many of the checks and balances put in place to keep them there. Large cash bonuses do nothing to promote stable growth, they simply increase the potential reward for taking risks. Arguments that the accountability rules will prevent this seem very hollow when we look at the almost non-existent enforcement of these rules with regards to senior individuals.

Preferably, I'd like to see the hugely wealthy and all corporations being forced to pay their fair share of tax, rather than hiding it offshore and using clever accountancy to avoid paying what they owe. Many of our own MPs are among that horrid crowd. I would also like to see the hugely inappropriate expense accounts and subsidised bars and dining removed from the Houses of Parliament. These people are paid more than is sufficient for their needs, all the while voting to restrict help to the most vulnerable.