Concern as budget 'giveth and taketh away'

"A bit giveth and a bit taketh away"

That was the initial reaction to the budget from Charles Nicholds, managing director of Murphy & Son - a Nottingham-based supplier for the brewery and winemaking industry.

He welcomed the tax cut on draught alcoholic drinks of approximately a penny on an average pint.

He was concerned, however, about the increase to the national living wage, which he said would have a "much bigger impact" on brewers' costs.

"Yes they might be saving a penny on duty but actually their overall costs are going to go up," he said.

He was one of the business leaders watching Rachel Reeves' statement at a roundtable event organised by the East Midlands Chamber.

There was an audible gasp from some when the chancellor confirmed many employers will have to make a bigger contribution to National Insurance.

"We've got 70 members of staff. I haven't done the numbers but that's going to hurt us pretty hard," Mr Nicholds said.

He added his company is hoping to hire more staff, but recruitment may now need to be put on hold.

Sarah Loates runs her own HR consultancy firm, based in Derby.

As a microbusiness, she said she should benefit from an extension to the Employers Allowance - the amount firms can claim back from their National Insurance bill - from £5,000 to £10,500.

Like Mr Nicholds, though, she said there were pros and cons to the budget.

"Bigger picture, a lot of our clients are the size of Charles' [Murphy & Son], and if they’re having to tighten their belts, that means inevitably they would be spending less with businesses such as myself," she said.

Kevin Harris was less impressed.

He is a partner at audit and tax advisers RSM, based in the Leicester office.

He called the predictions from the Office for Budget Responsibility for growth in the economy "underpowering".

"Given all that investment that’s likely to go into the economy over the next five years, growth under 2% per annum didn’t really seem that inspiring. I was expecting it to be better than that," he said.

And while he welcomed a continued freeze on fuel duty, he shared others' concerns about employers' National Insurance contributions.

"In a business that employs many thousands of people as mine does, that’s going to put an enormous amount on to workforce payroll costs," he said.

One particular announcement was welcomed by Laura Shepherd, director of strategic partnerships at Loughborough College.

She said an extra £300m for further education should help close a gap in pay between colleges and schools.

"If you’re a maths teacher in a college you’re going to be paid significantly less than a maths teacher in a school, yet colleges are seen as helping government respond to supporting the skills system and growing businesses in the area," she said.

"If we can’t attract high quality teachers with pay, how are we going to get them into our organisation?"

Scott Knowles, chief executive of the East Midlands Chamber said overall it felt like "a really tough budget for business".

He added: "This additional cost burden, for many, might be too much and you might see businesses deciding not to recruit that extra member of staff. It might have an impact on what pay awards are able to be afforded next year."

He was also disappointed about how little mention there was of the region in the chancellor's speech.

"We heard lots of references to Manchester, to the West Midlands, to the devolved nations. There were a couple of scant references to investment in aerospace in the East Midlands," he said.

"You can’t help but feel that disappointment that the East Midlands once again didn’t seem to feature prominently in the thinking from London."

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