The Autumn Budget - your views

"From most people's perspective, it really was a nothing budget. No major changes to income or CGT rates, pensions nor inheritance tax. The Chancellor teased about major reforms on business rates then proceeded to announce more regular valuation adjustments and just temporary relief for the hospitality sector — hardly large-scale structural changes. "When the major tax announcements are on the smallest of taxes such as tonnage tax and domestic air passenger duty, this shows how much the Chancellor was scratching around the edges of tax reform. "The benefits for pubs and hospitality is good to hear, but that really is just small beer compared to the opportunity there was to reform business rates properly."

“The 50% cut on business rates announced in the Budget will be a massive boost to the hospitality sector, which has been one of the hardest hit by the pandemic. Every penny counts and those extra pennies will go a long way to bring hospitality businesses back to their pre-pandemic health. Businesses in the hospitality sector will be popping the sparkling wine corks to celebrate, as that’s just got cheaper, too. There are still difficult times ahead but this has been a decent Budget for the hospitality sector.”

“The additional spending on R&D reliefs is welcome and it is particularly encouraging that the Government is modernising the R&D tax relief schemes by allowing cloud computing and data costs. What we don’t know yet is whether the additional funding will end up in the hands of SME businesses, who are the lifeblood of the UK economy, or if it will be swallowed up by a small number of multinational corporations. For too long there has been an institutional bias on the R&D front, favouring the largest companies over the smallest."

"So the leisure, hospitality and retail sectors get a 50% discount in business rates, but what about some help for the Hair and Beauty industry that is still plagued by Covid with last-minute cancellations and no shows? Especially for the mobile therapists who received absolutely no help at all. Rishi says we have a few tough months ahead but it feels more like a few years for those in my industry."

"The devil's always in the detail. It's brilliant to see alcohol duty cut on draught beer but that's only for 'containers' more than 40L. This is great for the big breweries but so many smaller craft brewers only supply in 30L containers. This just further supports the big players in the market, not supporting the smaller, independent breweries who need support most."

"Thank God Rishi has reduced the 63% reduction in universal credit when working families earn money from employment or self-employment. But the disabled, often unable to work, are still living under the poverty line. It's still the choice between eat or heat for them."

"As budgets go, this one was underwhelming and if it was focusing on a high-wage and high-skills economy, then the initiatives put in place fell short of setting the foundations for this future. It was expected that wages would rise, however, businesses will need to consider other things, such as hybrid working, culture and the wider employer brand to remain competitive in the jobs market considering unemployment is expected to peak at 5.2%. "Employers are going to have to consider how this budget will impact them. Whilst we’ve seen continued increases to the living wage over the last few years, we are starting to see a squeeze point, particularly at Junior to Middle Management level. It’s all relative. And continually increasing salaries at the bottom end of the salary scale, while not appraising salaries at the junior and middle level may mean that - in what is an increasingly competitive market - talent is lost. "The government is trying to continue the work they have done in apprenticeships. This is great for some skills, but potentially limited in scope to those who can’t or don’t take that pathway. The incentives offer a considerable amount to encourage people to do apprenticeships at younger ages. While the apprenticeships initiatives have largely been successful, there is a big gap in adult skills. As such, we are seeing an impact on the jobs market. "You can hire in skills and experience that you don’t have within the business, and that’s one way that you can look at your skills gap at the business level. However, with the changing landscape of the workplace, and as part of the drive to retain people, the emphasis needs to shift to personal development. The government will be providing more funding for skills training - which will help businesses in upskilling their whole workforce and associated personal development programmes."