Chamber members react to Chancellor 's Budget

Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce members have been reacting to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt 's Budget which was delivered yesterday.

Here is a snapshot of the reaction from member businesses.

Professor Julian Beer (pictured), deputy vice-chancellor of Birmingham City University

It is really great news that the West Midlands has been chosen to host one of the Tech hubs clustered around universities in England.

Whilst we await the details on this, here in Birmingham and the West Midlands we have a clear plan for economic growth focussed on our strengths and opportunities and working closely with the private sector, combined authority and local authorities - the region 's universities have a key role to play.

The Tech Hub and Investment Zone will support our ambitious plans and help us drive them forward.

Matthew Hammond, PwC UK Midlands regional market leader/Birmingham senior partner

It 's pleasing to see a commitment from the Government and practical details about the delivery of the zones.

Whilst the proposals have been scaled back, both the West Midlands and East Midlands are set to still benefit from the proposed scheme that will be linked to a local research institution such as a university.

The Treasury has committed £80m of support over five years to each zone, including tax incentives and the cutting of red tape to attract businesses to areas of the country that have experienced slower economic growth.

Productivity and enterprise economies were a key focus of today 's statement. The investment zones will support the regional levelling up agenda by driving economic growth in the Midlands.

Kyla Bellingall, partner and regional managing partner in the Midlands at BDO LLP

As part of our bi-monthly survey of 500 mid-sized businesses, more than a quarter told us that they wanted to see tax incentives in the region.

With East and West Midlands set for an opportunity to bid for funding for a new Investment Zone, this could come to fruition.

Businesses were also hoping for a roadmap to reduce corporation tax rates. Instead, the Chancellor said that companies could offset 100 per cent of investment in IT, equipment, plant, and machinery in the UK against taxable profits, stating that it 's the most generous capital allowance scheme of any advanced economy.

That said, there are practical barriers as businesses still grapple with supply chain challenges. As a result, people may struggle to get hold of the kit they want to invest in.

“All year round, businesses tell us that access to skills is their biggest challenge. Hopefully, new initiatives and incentives will open up a deeper talent pool by attracting returners and working parents back to work.

Support with childcare costs will also be well received by business leaders as a way of helping employees with the cost-of-living crisis.

Around one-in-ten Midlands businesses have already been trying to plug this gap, by providing other workplace benefits such as support with childcare costs for employees.

Jessica Bowles, director of strategic partnerships and Impact at Bruntwood

The Chancellor 's commitment to increasing fiscal responsibility to the mayors of the West Midlands and Greater Manchester is a big step in establishing the principle of local decision-making and providing these areas with the opportunity to make changes that are most relevant to their needs.

This is something we believe will be crucial in stimulating growth in the long-term, and we hope it will be the start of even greater collaboration between local authorities and central government moving forward.

At the same time, we believe that the Government should focus on investing in things only the Government can invest in, such as improvements to national infrastructure. So, this transfer of power - and hopefully more in the future - will allow this to happen more often.

Charlie Rae, employment partner at Shoosmiths

Overall, the budget brings together a package of measures that is aimed at easing some of the workforce pressures still prevalent across many industries.

However, it is clearly going to take some time for the potential impact of many of the measures to be felt.

It will be interesting to see whether, in time, the measures will help employers and employees as much as the government intends.

John Webber, head of business rates at Colliers

The Government 's lack of comment on Business Rates Reform in its Budgets desperately disappointing - with no reassurance that it has engaged with the industry - despite the fact the new 2023 Revaluation list becomes live in two weeks ' time.

Although the Chancellor announced that some local authorities would be able to retain their business rates to decide their use and that there would be reliefs in the new Investment zones, these measures are largely irrelevant.

Business rates retentions are often a hospital pass- the local authorities are given more authority to spend funds raised- but the amount of money raised never fills the gap between that and what is needed.

Sometimes retention can be a real negative to the local authority with the impact of appeals and the risk of losses.

Johnathan Dudley, partner and head of manufacturing, Midlands at Crowe

What was very pleasing was to see mention of an industrial strategy again, a concept that has been absent from both rhetoric and actions of government for so very long.

Confidence will get savers investing and spending, so the announcement of 12 more Investment zones, each with £80 million of funding with “generous tax incentives ” does smack of a strategy. But as ever, the “devil will be in the detail ”. Where does IT, plant and machinery stretch to?

Incentives for innovation through R&D reliefs were interesting, to a point; industry types seem limited though and there is little sign of a let up in the attacking of R&D for SMEs that he announced back in October.

The introduction of full capital expensing relief for all businesses sounds great but most SMEs enjoy this anyway with £1m per year already available. This actually won 't cost much overall and is a good headline with limited substance if the intention is to drive investment.

Andrew Goodacre, CEO of the British Independent Retail Association (BIRA)

We were not expecting much from the Budget today and while we are pleased with the focus on growth, many of the big announcements are focused on long term investment.

We hope that the better economic forecasts, and more people returning to work will improve consumer confidence - often the key driver for high street economic growth.

Unfortunately though there was nothing to ease the fears of indie retailers dealing with the pressures of today.