Chancellor's Budget is 'good news' for Yorkshire Coast businesses
The Chancellor's delivered his Budget aimed at helping businesses through the coronavirus pandemic including the Yorkshire Coast.
The Chancellor's delivered his Budget aimed at helping businesses through the coronavirus pandemic, but also starting to pay back the bill for that.
Rishi Sunak has promised an extra £65 billion for firms and workers to recover from Covid-19.
The furlough scheme has been extended until the end of September, and the £20 a week increase in Universal Credit will also continue.
Paul Dixon, Director of Fortus Business Advisors and Accountants in Scarborough, said:
"The lower 5% VAT rate is staying until August and not returning to the full 20% until next April. The business rates holiday has been extended until June and again some further discounts after that. So those are the big ones for businesses on the east coast.
"The grants of up to £6,000 for non-essential shops, like salons, hairdressers etc and for those in hospitality, leisure, hotels, bed and breakfasts, cafes and restaurants can get up to £18,000 in grants.
"Alcohol and fuel duty has been frozen again. They were scheduled to be increased but he often pulls that one out the bag at the last minute and says 'we'll freeze them for another year'. So when we do finally get to the pubs in the coming weeks or months, there's no increase in duty which is a welcome boost.
"There's no headline increases in tax, there's small increase in personal allowance, so that's the rate in which people start paying tax. It's a small increase this year but then they are frozen for quite a number of years past year. There's also an increase in the corporation tax rate however the smaller businesses with profits of £50,000 or less there's no change there."
The key measures include:
• An extension of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme until the end of September ensuring it continues to support employers as they begin to reopen.
• Two further grants for self-employed people, with the newly self-employed also eligible for both grants.
• A continuation of the temporary Universal Credit uplift for a further six months.
• New support for providing young people with new skills, including doubling the incentive payment to SMEs to take on apprentices of any age to £3,000, and £126 million to triple the number of traineeships next year.
• New Recovery Loans and a new Restart grant of up to £18,000 to help businesses as they reopen.
• Extension of the business rates holiday, VAT cut and stamp duty holiday.
• New mortgage guarantee scheme from April which backs 95 per cent mortgages, helping first time buyers with smaller deposits.
• Opening up the new Levelling Up Fund for its first round of bids, worth £4.8 billion across the United Kingdom.
• 45 new Town Deals to help spread opportunity across the country.
• 8 freeports in England to encourage free trade and bring investment to all regions of the country through lower taxes and cheaper customs.
• The first ever UK Infrastructure Bank, located in Leeds to invest in public and private projects to drive green growth and create green jobs.
• A new Help to Grow scheme to boost productivity of small businesses to ensure they are embracing the latest technology and management training.
• No increase Income Tax, NICs or VAT and personal tax allowances at current levels from 2023 to 2026.
• Alcohol duty, and fuel duty frozen for the 11th year in a row.
• Support for the sports, arts and culture sectors by a further £700 million as they begin to reopen.
• Corporation tax on large company profits will increase to 25 per cent in 2023 but this will be tapered and 70 per cent of businesses will be completely unaffected.
Kevin Hollinrake, MP for Filey, said:
“I think this was a brilliant Budget by a brilliant Chancellor. It provides businesses and families in Thirsk and Malton with the support and reassurance they need to get through the pandemic. It’s been a tough year and many people are understandably still very worried about their future. With £407 billion of support for families, jobs and businesses, it is right that the Chancellor was honest with the British people about our public finances and sets out a clear and fair route to recovery. It is tough, but we will recover and I am particularly heartened by the fact that that this Conservative Government is now making good on its promise to build our future economy and investing in every corner of the United Kingdom, especially the North”.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak MP said:
“Throughout this pandemic, my top priority has been to protect jobs, businesses and livelihoods. Today’s Budget reaffirms this commitment, with £407 billion to support the British people this year and next as one of the largest, most comprehensive and sustained responses this country has ever seen. It is thanks to successive Conservative governments that we have been able to respond to this crisis as boldly as we have. But we need to be honest about the challenges facing our public finances, and how we will begin to fix them. As we look ahead, this Budget lays the foundations of our future economy, driving up productivity, creating green jobs, supporting small businesses, and levelling up across the entire United Kingdom”.