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MORE autumn statement biz reaction - for Metro

Journalist: Rosie Murray-West, Freelance

ended 22. November 2022

Hello

I'm looking for businesses to tell me about what they thought of the Autumn statement and how it will affect their businesses. I know there's been a lot of this already but there's still appetite for more. It is for a double page spread in Metro.

I'd like to know how worried you are about

a) consumer sentiment

b) your own business bills 

And how you feel about

the change to business rates and whether the government has done enough.

THANKS!

6 responses from the Newspage community

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Samuel Mather-Holgate
Independent Financial Adviser at Mather and Murray Financial
Liz Truss was reckless and Jeremy Hunt was stale, but what we needed was someone as ambitious as Truss and as credible as Hunt, and maybe that's a new Labour government. What Truss did was knock confidence in our national finances and Hunt has had to stabilise this with a very boring, unambitious budget. Unfortunately, although this settles questions over our ability to pay our debts, it doesn't inspire growth. Stimulating the housing market doesn't mean keeping prices high, it means increasing transaction levels and the way you do this is by building more truly affordable homes. There was no 'main event' policy that was announced to do this. No only would this be good for those who want to own their first home, but it would massively stimulate the economy, keep to the Chancellor's fiscal rules about borrowing for investment and, over the long term, lead to a more equal society. The stamp duty announcements are a sticking plaster. The benefits will be lost by the worsening economy and downturn in the market. The tide is going out, and it's time to see who's swimming naked. It was good to see that in and out of work benefits will rise with inflation and that the time homeowners have to wait before they can seek help with their mortgage interest payments has been cut. This Conservative government is the most anti-business, anti-entrepreneurial that they have ever had in office. The huge tax burden they have forced on small businesses and the ever-increasing levy on normal working people's income is more akin to a badly administered socialist agenda. They have also made investing in the property market distinctly unattractive. First, Osbourne increased the stamp duty rates for owning a second property. Then he penalised higher rate taxpayers by refusing to allow them to offset costs against their rental income. Now, when you want to turn around your investments or leave the market they have decided to hit landlords again by reducing the capital gains tax threshold and keeping more of their profits for themselves. Through sheer ineptitude, this government will kill off many small businesses in the UK and put off would-be landlords who, in general, are good for housing stock and help people wanting to rent property. Look after the poorest, help normal working people, build more houses, stimulate growth and only tax the broadest shoulders not everyone.
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Debbie Porter
Managing Director at Destination Digital Marketing
The overt increases in Corporation Tax, dividends tax rises and a lowering of the tax-free threshold on those dividends are set to hit the small business population where there is increasingly less and less to give. Couple these with the stealth taxes in the form of freezes on the thresholds for National Insurance, Employment Allowance and VAT, and we are looking at a crippling time for small businesses over the next two years. How does this encourage the growth that is needed to help this country climb out of the economic pit of despair we find ourselves in? Everything I need to buy in to run my business has increased in price across the board. Everything I am being taxed on is rising in leaps too. Inflation has driven higher demand for salary increases, and with the autumn budget announcement of a Living Wage increase of 9.7%, and a Minimum Wage in excess of 10% means there is a lot less money to go around. All of this contributes to a further dampening of consumer intent to buy which has already seen Joules, The Sofa Workshop and Made.com sink under. I fear this could end up being the last Christmas for many retailers on the High Street, and where the Consumer Prices Index leads, the other sectors follow.
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Rachel Hayward
MD at Ask the Chameleon
The Chancellor may believe he is steadying the ship, but concern remains high within many small and micro businesses such as mine. Rising costs and bills, a freeze on VAT thresholds - which brings in tax by stealth - will disincentivise growth for many. I think we will see more closures, building upon the 500,000 small businesses who have already folded this past year. We can create jobs quickly - we do not have the bureaucracy of larger businesses - yet I see many of my fellow business owners holding back, fearful that the recession has yet to truly bite. A ray of hope does exist - and I hope that the discount for retail and leisure from 50% to 75% will make it easier for our high street business owners and carry them through this winter into the future. Yet for the majority, this "budget" did not go far enough.
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Adie Callaghan
Owner at New Forest Hamper Company
Having talked to many other small business owners in our region over the last few days and gauging reaction to our social media posts, confusion reigns in the majority of them along with mystified faces. Nobody seems quite sure of what move to make next - it feels like consumers are waiting for something, but noboday knows quite what they're waiting for! Small businesses can't just sit on their haunches and do nothing, so they're ploughing on trying to maximise every opportunity. I've never seen so many Christmas Fairs being promoted across social media - the problem is there are so many that I wonder if the general public are overwhelmed by them all. However the general consumer sentiment does seem to be in favour of supporting local businesses where they can. It's not easy as that does mean paying more - but hopefully they also equate that with better customer service and better quality. The majority of consumers and friends who I have been speaking to recently haven't even begun to start thinking about Christmas yet - they are reeling from phenomenal price rises across household bills and food shopping.. Not to mention what's going on with the weather - nature thought Spring was in full play until five days ago when the temperatures finally did plummet.. The apathy and delay in Christmas shopping is a concern as managing the supply chain and stock levels becomes even more challenging - nobody wants to over-order and be left with huge surplus festive stock, that would be the proverbial icing on the Christmas cake... To aid with our own increasing business bills, our team are coming in with extra layers on and flasks of hot drinks to avoid repetitive kettle-boiling! It's a tricky situation to find ourselves in - we have a spreadsheet set up to monitor daily electric watts and the team have taken it upon themselves to view it as a competition to see how low we can keep the daily usage. So we have said that whatever we save in energy bills, we'll put towards the Christmas drinks - thankfully we have a great team who love that idea and are totally up for the challenge!
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Samantha Acton
Director at Domestic Angels
The biggest impact will come in April with the hike in the Living Wage which will need to be passed directly to consumers. The amount to pass on includes the increase stated by the government plus the knock on increases to holiday/sick pay, NI and business insurance calculated by wage roll. We have a very loyal customer base and we take care of them as much as possible so hopefully yet again they will be understanding of these government increases which directly increase the cost of living. The VAT threshold of £85k has been static since 2017 and is intended to remain static until 2026 even though government directed costs (described above) pushing up turnover have been driven upwards. This gives no leeway to micro and small businesses which have no desire to push through the threshold until income is re-established. Businesses falling into this category are often female led and exist to facilitate flexible parenting, better family environment, manoeuvre around costly childcare and generate a respectable contribution to the household budget. Again, the only solution is to pass the cost onto the consumer and drive up the cost of living.
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Legend
Robert Bolohan
Co-Founder at Lotuly
I'm not worried about what they are doing because it seems they aren't doing enough and in any given moment they can just go back to what they did previously as we recently seen. In any moment in time they can simply reverse the previous version of their decisions so I'm more worried on how to keep my business afloat among so many changes and with the uncertainty that these changes are temporary and unstable. Small business owners are not at the top list of important aspects for them to consider so this not only affects the way we run our business but also our mental health.