Chancellor’s Spring Statement must offer business some respite – Chamber

Business leaders in Greater Birmingham have called on the Chancellor to use today’s Spring Statement as an opportunity to provide businesses with some much-needed respite.

Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce say the huge cost pressures facing firms will be amplified when next month’s National Insurance contribution increases and changes to the Employment Rights Bill take effect.

According to from the British Chambers of Commerce, 82 per cent of firms across the UK will be impacted by the National Insurance and minimum wage increases.

In Greater Birmingham, 26 per cent of businesses are expecting to reduce recruitment activity as a result of announcements made in the Autumn Budget.

While the Government is believed to have little financial ‘headroom’ ahead of this afternoon’s Statement, the Chamber hope Rachel Reeves uses it as an opportunity to help restore business confidence.

The GBCC is calling on the Chancellor to take the following steps:

• Outline a wider tax roadmap, which includes national insurance and business rates, giving firms a clearer idea of when costs will be lowered  
• Faster movement on infrastructure development and renewed support for exports, including a UK/EU reset that removes trade barriers
• Minimise costs and complexity for business from the proposed Employment Rights legislation 

Raj Kandola (pictured), director of external affairs at Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, said: “Subdued growth and higher interest rates have left the Treasury with very little headroom to pull a rabbit out of the hat in this afternoon's Spring Statement.

“Clearly the Chancellor's attempts to put the Government's finances on a surer footing at the Autumn Budget has left business confidence precariously low.

“Research from our latest Quarterly Business Report reveals the huge cost pressures businesses face on a day-to-day basis - all of which will be amplified once the changes to NI payments kick in next month and the fallout from the Employment Rights Bill becomes clearer.

“The Chancellor will need to use today's statement to restore confidence and demonstrate that the economy is on the right track - a clear commitment to boosting infrastructure investment, improving trading relations with the EU and a road map to reduce business costs needs to be on the table.

“As always the Policy Team will be on hand to analyse the detail and explain what today's measures will mean for business in clear and concise terms.”

Meanwhile, inflation fell faster than anticipated to 2.8 per cent during February, the Office for National Statistics said this morning.

Analysts had predicted a fall to 2.9 per cent, down from 3 per cent in January.