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Spring Statement Wishlist

ended 24. March 2025

As a small business or specialist in a certain sector, what would you like to see the Chancellor do in the Spring Statement? Are you expecting any curveballs or will the statement simply revolve around public sector spending cuts? Any other thoughts ahead of Wednesday, send them across. We'll issue them to the media late morning.

4 responses from the Newspage community

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Chris Barry
Director at Thomas Legal

As a specialist residential property law firm, we are hoping to see some initiatives to support first time buyers as this was absent from the Autumn budget.

The emphasis is very much on house building however this will not help people if they can’t afford the prices developers will need to attract in order to make a profit.

We would like to see some a scheme designed to give first time buyers the confidence and ability to jump from renting to home ownership. This could come in the form of SDLT support, deposit subsidence or cheaper mortgages.
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Anita Wright
Chartered Financial Planner at Ribble Wealth Management
I would like to see some common sense from the Chancellor on the Spring Statement—particularly regarding pensions and inheritance tax. Reevs could at least admit that her and her highly paid team of experts got it wrong and while the proposed changes are not logistically impossible, they are logistically difficult and expensive to administer. Moreover, the net tax take from this approach is unlikely to be significant. And why doesn’t she consider implementing the straightforward solution suggested by Baroness Ros Altmann (who, incidentally, is a former Pensions Minister)? Her proposal—applying a simple, separate tax on death at the basic rate of 20%—could have been implemented as early as April 2025, generating immediate revenues. In fact, the revenue stream from that approach would likely surpass the net revenue from this overly complicated system they are attempting to introduce.
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Craig Bunting
Co-founder at BEAR
Honestly, I expect nothing to change. I hope that as many businesses as possible that positively contribute to the broader economy and their local community find ways to get through this challenging time.

If I could wish, I'd take the recommendations from UK Hospitality and support their ask of the Chancellor by:

Creating a new Employer NICs band from £5,000 to £9,100 with a lower rate of 5% or implementing an exemption for these lower band taxpayers working fewer than 20 hours per week, targeting support for part-time and lower-paid workers.

Personally, I'd love to see VAT replanned at a lower rate, with our sector in mind, reducing the burden so we can continually reinvest in growth, invest in our high streets, and create jobs.

A U-turn on the rates relief change would have a huge positive impact on our sector, too. It should remain in place until the entire system is restructured more modernly.
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Harry Mills
Director at Oku Markets
We're now well past the stage of hope that Rachel Reeves will deliver an honest and growth-focused economic update, so deeply she lies in her world of anti-business gloom that weighs on us all. Reeves started her time as Chancellor by repeating ad nauseam the fabricated £22 billion "black hole" line as a convenient excuse to hike taxes on wealth creators. Reeves' October Budget increased taxes by £40bn, spending by £74bn, and debt by £100bn (to 96% of GDP). Since then, the economy has flat-lined, confidence has soured, inflation has picked up, and borrowing costs are higher. Reeves will need to deliver a firm and clear Spring Statement, ensuring she sticks to her own fiscal rules to prevent another UK assets sell-off like we saw in January, and gets spending and debt under control. Sadly, for business owners, there will very likely be no relief. Finally, her measures are based on OBR forecasts from February - gilt yields are up since then, so her statement is already out of date.