During his autumn budget, the Chancellor announced several different governmental spending avenues to ensure a strong economic bounce back after the coronavirus pandemic.
In our previous blog post, we spoke about the Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS) extension until 30th June 2022, however the government has pledged more to businesses to ensure a healthy post pandemic return. They have taken steps to support jobs, livelihoods, public services and businesses throughout the pandemic, having delivered a package of targeted, temporary support worth £323 billion over last year and this year.
As part of his budget, Rishi Sunak pledged a reform in business rates in order to create a fairer system that is more responsive and supportive of investment. Also pledged was half price business rates for retail, hospitality and leisure sectors in England up to £110,000, which is available for 12 months. The government are now encouraging firms to adopt green tech, like solar panels with the incentive of a business rates investment relief. We urge all our Leisure and Hospitality customers to check again if they qualify for Business Rates Relief.
An increase in the National Minimum Wage was announced during the budget which is great news for the employee however, this may have a greater impact on smaller businesses as they now need to find additional funds to pay their staff, especially with the 4% increase in inflation over the coming year. The Chancellor also promised that tax will be going down and not up before the next election.
A positive sign is that the UK economy is forecast to return to pre-covid levels by 2022 and annual growth is set to rebound by 6.5% this year, followed by 6% in 2022.
“The budget is short on substance at clearly a very difficult time for any Chancellor. A cut in the Business Rates Relief for leisure, hospitality and retail businesses is a step in the right direction in helping some of the industries which have been hardest hit with the pandemic.” Mark Johnson, Managing Director
