What does the Autumn Budget mean for Greater Birmingham businesses?
Written by Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce Policy team members Emily Stubbs, Ruth Fleet and Paige Bowyer.
On 28 October 2026, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Healey, presented the Autumn Budget to the House of Commons. The Budget reviews the outlook for the UK economy and public finances and sets out the Government’s tax and spending plans.
This year’s budget takes place against a backdrop of higher global energy prices and borrowing costs arising from the conflict in the Middle East. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has upgraded its forecast for UK economic growth in 2026 to 1.2 per cent but expects growth to slow to 1.0 per cent in 2027 before increasing to 1.6 per cent in 2028 and 1.8 per cent in 2029. Inflation is forecast to peak at 3.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2027 before returning to the Bank of England’s 2.0 per cent target by the third quarter of 2028.
The Government has stated that the Budget is intended to provide short-term support for households and businesses while maintaining its fiscal rules and introducing longer-term measures relating to growth, investment, devolution, skills and business competitiveness.
Public finances
The Government has retained its two fiscal rules:
- The stability rule requires the current budget, covering day-to-day spending, to be in balance or surplus by the third year of the forecast.
- The investment rule requires public sector net financial liabilities to be falling as a proportion of GDP by the third year.
The OBR forecasts that both rules will be met. The stability rule is forecast to be met with £15 billion of headroom in 2029-30, rising to £22 billion in 2030-31, while the investment rule is forecast to be met by a margin of £24 billion in 2029-30.
However, the public-finance outlook has weakened relative to the Spring forecast, largely because of increased debt-interest costs. The OBR estimates that the UK will spend an average of £14 billion more per year on debt interest than forecast in March. Public sector net borrowing is forecast at 4.2 per cent of GDP in 2026-27, falling to 1.8 per cent by 2031-32. Public sector net debt is forecast to peak at 97.3 per cent of GDP in 2028-29, before falling to 95.6 per cent by 2031-32.
The Government has chosen to absorb some of the deterioration in the fiscal outlook using the headroom established previously rather than introduce broad-based tax increases.
On spending, day-to-day departmental spending will continue to increase overall in real terms, although the Government has said growth will become more gradual and targeted. Departmental administration budgets are expected to be reduced by 20 per cent in real terms by 2029-30, compared with the 16 per cent reduction previously planned, with the next Spending Review taking place in 2027.
Employment and skills
The Budget includes several measures affecting employment practices and employment-related support. It also contains a mixture of measures intended to increase apprenticeship opportunities, support young people into employment and make it easier for businesses to recruit and retain skilled workers.
Non-compete clauses
The Government has confirmed that it intends to legislate on the use of non-compete clauses in employment contracts. The reforms are intended to prevent non-compete clauses from restricting recruitment by start-up and scaling businesses or unnecessarily preventing workers from moving between jobs. They will apply across the economy. The Government will consult on the wider use of restrictive practices before setting out its detailed position in early 2027, ahead of legislation.
Reducing administrative burdens
The Government has also announced reforms designed to reduce administrative burdens arising from employment regulation. The wider Budget commits the Government to reducing the administrative cost of regulation for businesses by 25 per cent by the end of the Parliament, which it estimates would save businesses a total of £5.6 billion each year.
Apprenticeships and Skills
The Government will provide £100 million across 2027-28 and 2028-29 to expand Mayoral Apprenticeship Brokerage Pilots from seven (including the West Midlands) to all 14 current Mayoral Strategic Authorities in England. The services will provide tailored support to young people and employers, particularly SMEs, to create and access apprenticeship opportunities. Large government construction and infrastructure projects will also be required to have apprentices make up at least 3 per cent of their workforce.
This sits alongside previously announced support, including a £2,000 apprenticeship hiring payment for non-levy-paying employers taking on new young apprentices and a £3,000 Youth Jobs Grant for businesses employing eligible young unemployed people. The Government also set out plans to re-establish the Union Learning Fund in England, with a budget of £15 million per year from 2027-28.
Skilled migration routes
For employers recruiting internationally, the Government has announced a range of changes to skilled migration routes. From spring 2027 it will implement Migration Advisory Committee recommendations that include moving occupation-specific minimum salary thresholds from median earnings to the 25th percentile of wages, alongside changes to the general salary threshold, new-entrant discounts and PhD discounts. The High Potential Individual visa will be expanded to cover eligible graduates from the world's top 150 institutions, while the Graduate visa will last two years for graduates of high-compliance universities with strong labour-market outcomes.
The Government also set out plans to work towards allowing the highest-skilled sponsored workers a visa curtailment period of up to six months if their employment ends, providing additional time to secure another role. UKRI will also identify additional R&D-intensive companies that can act as host organisations on the Global Talent visa's endorsed-funder pathway by spring 2027.
Support to attract and retain talent
Alongside these skills and recruitment measures are several changes intended to help start-ups and scale-ups attract and retain talent. From 6th April 2027, the Company Share Option Plan will be renamed EMI2, with the maximum value of tax-advantaged options an employee can hold doubling from £60,000 to £120,000 and the exercise period increasing from 10 to 15 years.
The Government is also introducing a new Capital Gains Tax (CGT) Founders' Relief from 6th April 2027. Qualifying founders of high-growth, innovative businesses will be able to pay a 10 per cent CGT rate on up to £10 million of lifetime gains, subject to the detailed eligibility conditions currently being consulted upon.
Parental pay
The Budget also expands parental pay. From April 2029, eligible self-employed fathers, partners and adopters in Great Britain will be able to access a new parental allowance. People with sufficient work and earnings histories who have recently been employed or have irregular employment patterns, but do not qualify for statutory paternity or adoption pay, will also be eligible. The Government estimates that the changes will benefit more than 150,000 parents each year. The measure comes ahead of the conclusion of the wider Parental Leave and Pay Review in early 2027.
Business taxation
Corporation Tax
The Government has reaffirmed the commitments in its Corporate Tax Roadmap. The headline Corporation Tax rate will remain capped at 25 per cent, while the full-expensing regime will remain in place.
Changes will, however, be made to capital allowances. The main writing-down allowance will fall by two percentage points to 12 per cent from April 2027, while the main First Year Allowance will increase from 40-50 per cent for expenditure incurred from 1st January 2027.
The Government has also launched work to simplify Corporation Tax, including a consultation on targeted simplifications intended to improve certainty for investment and a Call for Evidence on modernising its administration.
Capital gains tax and business asset disposal relief
The Chancellor announced that the lifetime limit for gains qualifying for Business Asset Disposal Relief (BADR) will be reduced from £1 million to £500,000 for disposals made from 6th April 2027. BADR currently provides an 18 per cent CGT rate on qualifying disposals. The Government estimates that three-quarters of BADR claimants will continue to receive relief on their entire eligible gain.
At the same time, the new Founders' Relief will provide qualifying founders of high-growth, innovative companies with a 10 per cent CGT rate on up to £10 million of lifetime gains from 6th April 2027. This means the Budget is narrowing the general BADR lifetime allowance while creating a separate, more generous relief targeted specifically at qualifying founders.
HMRC compliance and tax administration
The Budget contains a significant package of measures intended to modernise tax administration and reduce the tax gap. The Government estimates that tax-gap measures announced during this Parliament will raise more than £12 billion in 2029-30, including £2.3 billion from measures announced at this Budget.
HMRC is expected to recruit an additional 670 compliance officers, on top of previous commitments to recruit 5,500 additional officers by 2029-30. From April 2029, VAT invoices will also have to be issued in a specified electronic format.
Further reforms include more regular in-year payments for Income Tax Self Assessment taxpayers making payments on account from April 2029; mandatory direct-debit arrangements for unpaid VAT and PAYE return liabilities; and, from July 2029, a new power allowing HMRC to recover lower-value tax debts in instalments directly from bank accounts where the Government says taxpayers can afford to pay but repeatedly fail to do so. The Government has said safeguards and a Code of Practice will be developed before this latter measure is legislated for.
Bank corporation tax surcharge
The Bank Corporation Tax Surcharge will temporarily increase from 3 per cent to 6 per cent for 15 months, from 1st January 2027 to 31st March 2028, before returning to 3 per cent. The Government states that the additional revenue will contribute towards the package of household energy support announced at the Budget.
Other tax changes
The Budget also reforms the taxation of company distributions, with changes due to take effect from April 2028 following further consultation. The intention is to create more consistent tax treatment between different legal forms and transaction structures while maintaining capital treatment for genuine changes of ownership, including family business succession.
Separately, online marketplaces will become responsible from October 2027 for collecting VAT on sales by UK VAT-registered businesses and other UK businesses making at least £90,000 of annual sales through a particular platform. Personal sales, second-hand goods and business-to-business transactions are excluded.
Business investment
The national wealth fund and British Business Bank
The Government announced £15.4 billion of additional capital for the National Wealth Fund and a £5 billion uplift in the British Business Bank’s (BBB) financial capacity. The BBB’s funding is intended to increase access to finance for innovative start-ups and scale-ups including £1.4 billion to invest in equity funds backing high-growth businesses and £450 million for a new venture debt product providing non-dilutive finance to innovative firms.
Regulatory reform
The Chancellor confirmed that the Government is still planning to introduce the Regulation for Growth Bill. Alongside this, it has promised a new Better Regulation Executive to set the direction for a streamlined and proportionate regulatory system, intended to better enable growth, investment and innovation in the public sector. For business, there is also a promise to deliver up to £640 million of new gross regulatory administrative savings, designed to cut the administrative cost of regulation for businesses by 25 per cent by the end of Parliament.
Procurement
The Government has committed to changes from January 2027, including a new definition of what constitutes a “UK supplier” and new guidance on applying social value in central government procurement.
Artificial intelligence
The Chancellor’s speech described the UK as Europe’s leading AI and cyber security economy, and promised £700 million of further investment to strengthen sovereign capability, accelerate productivity via AI adoption in businesses and public services, and setting tests for the approval of new strategic data centres across the UK, with a particular focus on data security.
Entrepreneurship
The Government has promised to support entrepreneurs in their first steps of starting a small business by tripling the Trading Allowance from £1,000 to £3,000 from 6th April 2027. Additionally, the Budget promised to pilot a Young Entrepreneurs Allowance to support successful applicants with living costs during the first year of their business.
For women entrepreneurs, there was a commitment of £100 million to women-led funds including first-time fund managers identified through Investor Pathways Capital, and plans to launch a scale-up programme to support women founders across the UK specifically in the tech industry.
Energy and fuel
The Budget announced a package of measures aimed at providing short-term relief from high energy and fuel costs, alongside longer-term reforms to reduce bills and improve the competitiveness of UK businesses. The Government announced plans to introduce a new Cost Control Framework at the 2027 Spending Review to set budgets for components of energy costs, including policy costs. Until then, the Chancellor announced that no further policy costs will be added to bills unless they reduce costs or are essential for security of supply. The planned Gas Shipper Obligation is also expected to be scrapped, with the Government instead funding hydrogen contracts directly.
Business energy costs
The Government has reiterated its commitment to the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme, meaning 10,000 energy intensive manufacturing firms will get a 20-25 per cent electricity discount, starting in April 2027, including a back payment for 2026-27. This discount will be paid for by exempting eligible businesses from the indirect costs of the Renewables Obligation, Feed in Tariffs, and Capacity Market schemes.
The Chancellor stated that the main rate of the Climate Change Levy on electricity will also be frozen from April 2028, while Carbon Price Support will be removed from the same date, a measure estimated to be worth £235 million over five years. The Government has also announced a £120 million Ceramics Industry Support Scheme to support energy efficiency and decarbonisation within the sector, which is expected to launch by the end of 2026.
Energy investment and market reform
It was announced that additional capital for the National Wealth Fund will include £2 billion for a new Energy Wealth Fund to support investment in renewable and low-carbon energy infrastructure across the UK. Reforms are expected to also prioritise new electricity generation where it lowers bills, benefits the wider energy system and can be accommodated by the grid. Great British Grid is expected to work alongside network operators to support grid upgrades, while strategically important projects will be prioritised for grid connections.
Household energy bills
The Chancellor announced that the temporary 0 per cent VAT rate on domestic electricity will be extended until July 2027, which is expected to reduce the annual Ofgem price cap by around £50 in April 2027. A new £2.6 billion Household Energy Payment will also provide £100 to up to 20 million households in Council Tax bands A-D in England from January 2027. A further £100 million will be provided to local authorities for targeted assistance to households particularly affected by rising energy bills.
The Government has asked Ofgem to abolish domestic gas standing charges by the end of 2027, or as soon as possible thereafter, while electricity standing charges will also be reformed. A new energy debt strategy, including a one-off targeted debt relief scheme, is expected to save a typical household almost £30 by 2030.
Fuel duty
The temporary 5p-per-litre cut in fuel duty will be extended for a further six months to 1st July 2027, with the planned uprating in line with the Retail Prices Index (RPI) also deferred until then. The Government estimates its fuel duty decisions across this Parliament will save the average car driver £230, the average light goods vehicle driver £472, and the average HGV driver nearly £4,000 compared with previous plans.
The current 3.7p-per-litre reduction in red diesel duty will also continue until 1st July 2027, while the 12-month Vehicle Excise Duty holiday for most HGVs will run to 1st July 2027, saving £600 for a typical HGV. Tax-free mileage rates for employees and self-employed people using their own cars or vans for work will also permanently increase to 55p per mile for the first 10,000 miles and 35p thereafter.
Electric vehicle charging
The Chancellor announced that the Government will provide £100 million over two years to reduce the cost of local, lower-powered public EV charging from spring 2027. This is expected to save an average EV driver who does not have access to home charging and charges on-street around £150 per year. A taskforce will also explore allowing drivers to use their domestic electricity tariff at local public charging points.
The Budget also clarifies that electricity supplied through publicly accessible and workplace EV charging points will be subject to 20 per cent VAT from 1 November 2026. This sits alongside the existing 100 per cent business rates relief for eligible EV charging points and electric vehicle-only forecourts for ten years from April 2026.
High streets
The Budget announced a package of measures aimed at supporting high street businesses, reducing business rates bills and encouraging investment in town and city centres. Measures include expanded business rates relief for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, additional support for pubs and live music venues, and funding to bring derelict high street properties back into use.
Business rates
From April 2027, Small Business Rates Relief thresholds will increase for qualifying retail, hospitality and leisure businesses. The threshold for 100 per cent relief will rise from £12,000 to £18,000, while the upper threshold for tapered relief will increase from £15,000 to £21,000. The Government estimates this will take around 70,000 additional high street businesses out of business rates entirely, including 3,500 pubs, 3,900 restaurants, 2,200 cafés and 1,700 hairdressers and beauty salons.
Business rates increases for qualifying retail, hospitality and leisure properties will also be capped at Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation in 2027/28 and 2028/29. The Government estimates that more than 14,000 restaurants will avoid an additional £7,500 in costs on average over the two years, while 120,000 shops will avoid an additional £3,250 on average. Taken together with wider reforms, around half of all retail, hospitality and leisure properties will pay no business rates, while approximately 110,000 properties will see their bills fall next year.
The Supporting Small Business scheme will also be extended for another year from April 2027 for businesses that had received the 2023 scheme. Around 37,000 small and independent ratepayers are expected to continue receiving protection, worth an average of around £3,000. The Government will also abolish the existing £150 and £300 Valuation Tribunal fees for non-domestic rating appeals in England.
Pubs, social clubs and live music venues
Pubs, social clubs and all but the largest live music venues will receive an additional 20 percentage points of business rates relief from April 2027, bringing their total relief to 35 per cent (combining with the earlier 15 per cent introduced this year). The Government estimates the combined support will represent an average tax cut of more than £3,000 per pub next year.
The Government will also change eligibility for high street business rates support from April 2027, with vape shops and adult gaming centres no longer qualifying for retail, hospitality and leisure multipliers, while vape shops will also cease to qualify for Small Business Rates Relief.
High street investment and reform
A new High Streets Strategy will be introduced, including a “High Streets First” principle for relevant public estates, reforms to Business Improvement Districts and measures aimed at cleaning up England's high streets. The Chancellor announced that the Government will also provide £210 million to revitalise derelict high street buildings.
This High Streets Strategy will sit alongside Home Office action aimed at tackling organised crime operating through businesses on high streets, as part of wider measures to improve high street areas.
Online retail
The Chancellor also confirmed that from October 2027, online marketplaces will become responsible for collecting VAT on sales made through their platforms by UK businesses with more than £90,000 of marketplace sales. The Government states that the measure is intended to address VAT non-compliance that undercuts high street businesses, with the money raised reinvested in high streets through business rates reductions.
Defence
The Budget set out plans to expand the UK’s defence industrial base and increase the role of British businesses, private investment and innovation in delivering the Government’s defence ambitions. This sits alongside plans for defence spending to reach 3 per cent of GDP by 2030, with a commitment to meet the NATO target of 3.5 per cent by 2035.
Defence investment and finance
A new Innovative Defence Financing Taskforce will be established to maximise private and international finance into UK defence and support procurement reforms which enable innovative financing. The Government will also develop a pipeline of opportunities for private finance, including public-private partnerships where these provide value for money, as part of wider plans to expand the UK defence industrial base.
The National Wealth Fund and British Business Bank will deploy up to £5 billion over the next four years into defence, dual-use technologies and other sectors supporting national security, sovereign capability and resilience. This is expected to provide investment and lending across the defence supply chain and intended to support the expansion of the UK’s industrial capacity.
Backing British industry
The Government has announced that it will adopt a new “Back British” approach to defence, prioritising British firms and workers and providing greater certainty over where the UK will develop sovereign capability, partner with allies and buy competitively. The approach will also focus on developing domestic skills and technology, increasing industrial capacity and strengthening UK supply chains.
The fully funded Defence Investment Plan is expected to support around 60,000 additional jobs by 2029/30 compared with 2023/24, with defence contracts used to support skilled employment, strengthen UK supply chains and increase industrial capacity. Defence will also form part of the Government’s wider reindustrialisation strategy, alongside sectors including advanced manufacturing, digital and technology and clean energy.
More widely, the Government intends to take a stronger approach to using public procurement to support British industry, improve resilience and address vulnerabilities within critical supply chains.
Innovation and technology
The Chancellor announced that UK Defence Innovation will have a ringfenced annual budget of £400 million to accelerate the development and delivery of new technologies. The Budget also includes around £500 million to support the security foundations of an AI-enabled economy, alongside a £25 million AI and Cyber Security Challenge Fund to support UK innovation.
It was stated that the Ministry of Defence is also exploring opportunities to expand sovereign compute and data-centre capacity through its secure estate, which the Government anticipates could ultimately provide secure and scalable computing access for UK SMEs and support the development of the UK’s sovereign AI industrial base.
The Budget states that more than £500 million is also being invested in defence productivity improvements this year, including around £30 million for new digital tools and digital-twin capabilities and £29 million for automation and AI.
Defence procurement
The Government will continue reforms to defence procurement, stating an ambition to reduce contracting times for major platforms by two-thirds. The reforms are intended to introduce different procurement routes for different capabilities and provide greater certainty to industry.
The UK is also developing a new Multilateral Defence Mechanism with the Netherlands, Finland and Poland to aggregate demand and enable joint procurement. Treaty negotiations are expected to begin with the aim of having the mechanism operational in 2027, with the Government stating that the approach should reduce costs, provide industry with greater certainty and improve value for money.
Devolution
Business rates retention and income tax
Local and regional government will retain 100 per cent of their business rates receipts before the end of the decade to replace grant funding from central government. The first step will be taken in April 2027, when MSAs will be allocated a 20 per cent share of locally retained business rates from, rising towards the end of the decade and with the option to exchange more grants for locally retained rates in the future. Local authorities will also be able to retain up to 100 per cent of their business rates via their existing funding mechanism.
Additionally, from 2028, MSAs will be assigned a share of income tax generated in their areas, to generate a long-term funding settlement to support strategic regional development. The power to set income tax levels will be retained by central government. Income tax will be allocated in a bespoke way to account for regional disparities.
Good growth funds
The Government has created Good Growth Funds at this Budget, announcing £285 million of new capital funding in 2027-28, including £165 million for areas with a mayor in place in 2027 and £120 million of incubator capital for areas transitioning towards a devolution deal or Strategic Authority. These funds are designed to align Public Financial Institutions, pension funds and private capital behind local growth priorities to invest in regeneration and development. MSAs will also have access to a bespoke borrowing facility of £1.5 billion from April 2028.
Personal taxation
The Budget announced a number of changes to the taxation of property and savings income, alongside reforms to ISAs, support for first-time buyers and changes to allowances for individuals with smaller sources of income.
Property and savings income
From 6th April 2027, income tax rates on property income will increase by two percentage points in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This will take the basic rate of income tax on property income to 24 per cent, the higher rate to 44 per cent and the additional rate to 49 per cent.
Tax rates on savings income will also increase by two percentage points from 6th April 2027, taking the basic, higher and additional rates to 24 per cent, 44 per cent and 49 per cent respectively. These rates will apply across the UK.
Property taxation
The Government will introduce a High Value Council Tax Surcharge in England, alongside a deferral scheme and a series of discounts and exemptions. A 100 per cent premium will also apply to properties left empty and unoccupied for 12 months or more.
Separately, Stamp Duty Land Tax on rent paid under assured tenancies in England will be removed, with the change taking effect from 1st May 2026 following the Renters' Rights Act 2025.
Pension tax allowance
The Government will also introduce a new Pension Tax Allowance from 6 April 2027, designed to prevent pensioners whose total income is at or below the value of the full new State Pension from being brought into paying small amounts of income tax as the State Pension increases. The allowance will be gradually withdrawn for those with income above this level and will apply until 5th April 2030.
Housing
Social and affordable housing
The Government announced an additional £1.5 billion to deliver around 10,000 social and affordable homes in England, prioritising Social Rent, alongside support for council borrowing, VAT relief on land sold to social housing providers and exploration of a greater role for mayors in public estate decisions.
Homelessness and rough sleeping
A further £432 million across 2027-28 and 2028-29 will support rough sleepers, with a wider homelessness funding review concluding in 2027.
Planning and housing regulation
For housebuilders, major building regulation changes will be paused for the remainder of Parliament, except for building safety improvements, while residential brownfield sites up to 1.5 hectares will be exempt from Biodiversity Net Gain requirements. Subject to testing, PlanAssist will be available to all English councils by the end of 2027, alongside mandatory digitisation of key planning documents.
ISAs and first-time buyers
The annual cash ISA subscription limit will remain at £20,000. The Government will also work with industry to explore a new ISA incentive aimed at people investing through a stocks and shares ISA for the first time.
It is anticipated that a new First Time Buyer ISA will also be introduced from April 2029, replacing the Lifetime ISA for new savers. Savers will be able to contribute up to £4,000 a year, with no upper age restriction. The new account will provide a 25 per cent government bonus when savings are withdrawn to purchase a qualifying first home, with a £450,000 property price limit and maximum government bonus of £20,000. Existing Lifetime ISA holders will continue to be able to contribute to and use their accounts under existing rules.
For existing Lifetime ISA savers, the withdrawal charge when purchasing a first home costing more than the £450,000 property cap will be reduced to 20 per cent from 29th October 2026. The charge for other unauthorised withdrawals will remain at 25 per cent.
Your first home equity-loan scheme
A new £4.7 billion Your First Home scheme is expected to offer 20 per cent equity loans, with first loans issued from April 2027.
What is the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce Response to the Autumn Budget 2026?
As the Chancellor and the Office for Budgetary Responsibility made absolutely clear, businesses are no longer battling strong economic headwinds; they are up against global economic storms.
The big news for many Greater Birmingham businesses comes in the form of fiscal devolution. The announcement that by 2030 the West Midlands can anticipate full business rates retention, alongside partial income tax retention presents a significant opportunity, provided these new freedoms are used in genuine partnership with business to unlock investment, strengthen infrastructure and tackle the barriers holding back regional growth.
More immediately, there were also some positive announcements for founders, business leaders and start-ups, particularly those just taking the initial leap to start their entrepreneurial journey, and self-employed parents.
The extension of business rates reliefs for retail, hospitality and leisure firms will also be welcomed. However, it is incredibly disappointing to see yet another Chancellor swerve the call for meaningful business rates reform and choosing to simply patch over the cracks in a fundamentally flawed system.
As in previous budgets, increased investment in defence, alongside ambitions to expand the UK’s defence industrial base, may offer new opportunities for local businesses, particularly manufacturers here in the West Midlands already if the region can provide tailored support for diversification.
More broadly, increased funding to crowd in business investment, through the National Wealth Fund and British Business Bank, investment in sovereign AI, and the new UK Export Finance guarantee are positive.
Nevertheless, many firms will be disheartened by an underwhelming budget overall.
Many businesses will have been hoping for more on energy costs and fuel, and while additional funding for local apprenticeship services is welcome, delaying the Government’s full response to the Milburn review means businesses will have to wait longer for the more fundamental action needed on youth unemployment, skills and economic inactivity.
Whilst the Banks footing much of the bill for these announcements will be buoyed by Healey’s surcharge hike coming in lower than anticipated – and for a limited time period – many will remain concerned about the impact it will have on the price and availability of finance, the precedent that it sets, and risks to long term competitiveness.