MEASURES unveiled by Chancellor Rishi Sunak in this week’s Spring Statement to combat soaring inflation have been branded a “drop in the ocean” compared with the increased costs facing households and firms.
As Mr Sunak faces criticism that the statement did not do enough to help the most financially vulnerable in society, or to support businesses, the chief executive of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce has declared firms in the city had been hoping for more radical steps from the Chancellor.
Business groups were scathing that Mr Sunak did not adequately address surging energy costs. Andrew McRae, policy chair of the Federation of Small Businesses in Scotland, declared this was a “glaring omission” from the spring statement.
READ MORE: Scott Wright: Difficult days in store for Scotland's hard-pressed pubs
Stuart Patrick, chief executive of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, said today: “Whilst there were some positive initiatives within this statement from the Chancellor I think businesses across Glasgow were hoping for more ambition to tackle the immense challenges they will face in the coming months.
“Ultimately the positive steps are just a drop in the ocean compared to the larger tsunami of surging costs that is bearing down on firms and households.
“Smaller businesses are particularly exposed as they have neither the protections or financial support provided to households, nor the negotiating power of larger businesses.”
The spring statement was limited on business measures, with the 5p per litre reduction in fuel duty arguably the most headline-grabbing.
Mr Sunak pledged to increase the employment allowance by £1,000 to £5,000 to help smaller firms, and unveiled plans to examine how to improve technical skills, boost productivity and unlock investment in research and development. But business groups generally felt the statement did not do enough to ease the challenges facing firms.
Hospitality groups were disappointed that Mr Sunak did not deviate from plans to return the level of value-added tax to 20 per cent for the sector.
Mr Patrick added: “Most would have been wanting to see more action taken to help mitigate the rising cost of fuel. The 5p per litre reduction is only a mere fraction compared with other European nations who are reducing VAT levels by [up] to 20 per cent to help businesses and this ever rising cost of energy is a huge worry for many firms – especially SMEs.
“We urge the government to take further action – including the introduction of an SME energy price cap - to tackle the escalating cost of doing business crisis.
“Firms need the headroom to keep a lid on prices, protect jobs and make investment that is so vital to sustaining our economic prospects.
“I think the biggest takeaway for businesses listening yesterday was that things are going to get worse before they get better.”
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