Copy article

The Budget - South West business reaction

Journalist:

ended 15. March 2023

I'm a reporter for the website Business Live in the South West of England.  I'm looking for reaction comments from companies in the region to The Budget the Chancellor has just delivered for a round-up piece and for our national live blog coverage - how do the policies affect your business,  if at all? What were you pleased to see announced and what do you think was missing? 

2 responses from the Newspage community

Copy all

Copy

John Lamerton
Small Business Author at Big Ideas... for Small Businesses
Once again, Westminster has ignored the South West, with the 12 new investment zones announced suspiciously correlated with the so-called "red wall" in the North. As usual, there's nothing for small business owners in the South West to look forward to, other than higher taxes and more red tape. AI gimmicks and R&D credits do nothing to help the plumbers, coffee shops or accountants of the region.
Copy

Mark Grant
Business Finance Adviser at The Business Finance Branch
As a Cheltenham-based business finance brokerage, we are pleased to see a couple of measures announced that will be a boost for our business clients in the South West region. The freeze in fuel duty for another year will prevent an inflationary increase in overheads for the many firms that need road transport to trade, just as some of the heat had started to come out of their fuel bills. And the incentive to invest in assets, vehicles and technology by offsetting 100% of your investment against profit for corporation tax purposes gives people an answer to the question of how can they invest and grow while dealing with an increased corporation tax bill.