Hard-pressed businesses already facing a perfect storm will hardly have been cheered by the 5% reduction in fuel duty announced in the Chancellor’s Spring Statement.
There will also be business rates discounts of 50% for eligible retail, hospitality, and leisure properties from April 2022.
These were the only measure to be introduced immediately and, as has been pointed out, the cut in fuel duty is unlikely to make much of a dent in fuel costs given the price rises already seen in recent weeks.
Apart from these, everything else was promises for the future.
Among them were future possible tax cuts on business investment, uprating the employment allowance, adjustments to the Apprenticeship Levy and extensions to R&D tax credits.
The director general of the BCC (British Chambers of Commerce) said the announcement “falls short of the action businesses needed to see” and one local county Chamber director said: “it’s almost as if they [business owners] and the trading realities they face aren’t being fully comprehended in Whitehall and Westminster.
While it may be true that there is limited room for manoeuvre thanks to the effects of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine that have added to the price and supply chain issues as a result of the Covid pandemic, businesses, upon whom the country’s economy and prosperity depend, needed to see much more decisive action to support them.
With insolvencies almost doubling year on year, many companies are on the brink right now and need urgent help.
K2 Business Partners are there for you as restructure and turnaround professionals. Contact us if you’d like to talk.