BUSINESS leaders warned tax benefits now may be cancelled out further down the line with increases elsewhere looming, and said, while the Chancellor showed a willingness to listen, the Budget lacked boldness.
Kitty Ussher, chief economist at the Institute of Directors, said the crucial test was whether the Budget gave business the confidence to invest, adding: "The Chancellor's business rates and R&D tax credit reforms are welcome, but with hefty hikes in other taxation on the horizon that may not be enough to convince business leaders to press go on their plans for growth.
"He had an opportunity to partially reverse his previous decisions on employment and profit taxes, made in tougher times, but he chose not to do so.
"While promising a 'skills revolution', the actual measures that were announced, while welcome, felt piecemeal, and will not give business confidence that we have a coherent plan to prevent future labour shortages for our post-pandemic era outside the EU."
Tony Danker, CBI director general, said: "The Chancellor has shown a genuine willingness to listen to business with measures that will get firms innovating and help the economy to grow.
"It takes several positive steps forward, but isn't bold enough to deliver the high investment, high productivity economy the Government seeks."
Shevaun Haviland, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: "Businesses have been battered by 18 months of the pandemic and problems around supply chain costs and disruption, labour shortages, price rises, soaring energy bills and taxes, and there may still be difficult months ahead.
"If firms face unexpected bumps in the road, the Chancellor must be prepared to take further action to enable the economy to fire on all cylinders again."
Budget: Scots hospitality industry warns of 'cliff edge'
The Scottish Government has been urged to match the relief from business rates handed to the hospitality industry in England by Chancellor Rishi Sunak in his Autumn Budget.
Scottish tourism chiefs hail controversial cut to air passenger duty
Tourism chiefs have hailed the cut in air passenger duty as a “hugely positive step” in the recovery of the travel and aviation sectors from the effects of the pandemic.
No new funding for North Sea transition but string of projects receive cash
A range of Scottish projects have been granted funding as part of the Chancellor's budget today.
Among them are Inverness Castle, Pollok Stables and a new marketplace for Aberdeen city centre.
If you have been forwarded this article and would like to sign up, or view our new range of newsletters, click below:
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel