Caerphilly Business Forum responds to the Budget

Caerphilly Business Forum’s chairman says the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Budget contained some hope for recovery but left a lack clarity around fuel prices, inflation and tax changes.
The forum’s chairman, Andrew Diplock, said: “Cutting fuel duty by 1p a litre now and postponing the 4p-a-litre increase he’d planned for next month is a start.
“However, the way oil prices are rising at the moment could nullify these cuts very quickly – prices at the pumps were 5p cheaper just two months ago – and the Chancellor has given no clear indication of what he’d do in those circumstances.
“Cutting growth forecasts was always likely but won’t help business confidence. Neither will the Chancellor’s acknowledgment that inflation is going to remain as high as 5% for the rest of the year.
“It’s important to all of us that the government doesn’t wave the white flag on this issue as it is a direct threat to interest rates and an increase there is the last thing we need.
“However, reducing the corporation tax rate from 28p to 26p and then down to 23p over the next three years will help businesses and ought to go some way to making us more attractive to inward investment again.
“Then there’s the big unknown – the simplification of tax codes by scrapping numerous different tax reliefs.
“Simplification in itself would be welcomed but the devil here will be in the detail: who will be worse off and who, if anyone, will be better off? The details may take a few days to emerge.”