Business owners across various sectors expressed mixed reactions to the recent budget announcements, highlighting their concerns and the potential impacts these changes may have on their operations. Key players in the automotive industry, hospitality, and food services are particularly vocal about how the budget will affect their businesses and personal lives.
Have workers like 59-year-old automotive industry worker Mike Carson make clear how the constant revisions of the budget takes a toll on their long-term finances. He went on to explain that he felt “punished” by the federal government’s fiscal choices made during the past several years. Further, Carson is concerned about proposed amendments to salary sacrifice schemes and National Insurance contributions. He is concerned these changes will raise costs for him and other laborers.
“My ambition was to retire at the end of this year, but that’s going to have to be delayed,” Carson stated. “This is not just because of changes to the budget, but they are a big contributing factor.” He pointed out that families having more than two kids would be hard hit. They may even find out that due to these budgetary shifts, their costs are set to increase by £100 a week.
On the hospitality side, Jenni Smith, owner of Duston Village Bakery, expressed her anger as well. She lamented the recent rises in minimum wage, explaining that they greatly affect her hurdle on managing operation costs. “It’s the minimum wage that kills us massively. I’ve got 16 staff for a little small business,” she explained. As a result of rising labor costs, Smith feels compelled to raise product prices, stating, “The only choice I have is to put the prices up.”
Smith shared her personal struggle, noting, “I used to spend a lot of time out in the bakehouse, baking cakes for people, but I can’t do that now because I need to be in the shop because I can’t afford to pay people to do the shop work – so I’m just worn out.”
Miranda Richardson, landlady of The Squirrels pub, has already expressed her worries on how an increase in wages would impact all her staff. She was passion-driven towards hospitality sector relief for VAT but she made clear that she was disappointed with the omissions. “VAT was huge in hospitality and a reduction for us was a massive thing – and nothing; that’s what we wanted, that’s what we needed,” Richardson remarked.
Mark Gee, who runs the Crown Pub in his home town of Wellingborough. He blasted the budget for ignoring fundamental problems that threaten his business. He highlighted that the lack of relief on VAT is hugely difficult for pub operators. “No relief at all on VAT, which kind of kills you really,” he said. “Because anything you do to try and make money, you get taxed on.” First, he agreed with me and others that minimum wage increases are good for younger workers and then went on to restate how harmful they are for small businesses.
Martin Mason, a representative of small and medium-sized businesses in the industrial sector, said he was disappointed there was no business rate relief featured. He spoke passionately about the need to get behind British manufacturing. He added that the current budget does not have enough help in place for firms who are struggling under pressures from both COVID and Brexit. “We’ve had Covid to deal with, we’ve had Brexit, which had a profound effect on our exports into Europe. They could have done a lot more,” Mason said.
Jane Calcott from Kettering Food Bank highlighted one specific area where budget changes could have a meaningful impact on families. She claimed that lifting the two-child cap on benefits would be a huge help to bigger families. “It would make an enormous difference to large families,” Calcott noted.
As these business leaders express their concerns about the recent budget changes, it is clear that many feel unaddressed by policymakers. With pressures mounting from various directions, rising labor costs, taxation issues, and changes in benefits, local business owners are left navigating an increasingly challenging landscape.