The mini-budget set out on Friday by Kwasi Kwarteng has astonished many analysts and financial experts. Now, two of Scotland’s most successful entrepreneurs have given their reactions to the Chancellor’s announcement.
Speaking on the Go Radio Business Show With Hunter & Haughey, Sir Tom Hunter said: “This is one of the boldest budgets I can remember
– they’re saying the boldest budget since the Thatcher years.
“I actually like it. I think it’s taking
a bit of a risk and new PM Liz Truss and Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng are really giving this a go.
“They’re tuned into what business people in this country are worried about, what the consumers are worried about, and they’re trying their best.”
Lord Willie Haughey agreed some
of the policy statements were to be welcomed, but added: “Some of it was also a bit surprising for me: it was like a good news day to put out bad news. For instance, I didn’t understand taking away the cap on bankers’ bonuses. I didn’t get that.
“So you say to the ordinary people: ‘Here’s one pence in the pound back for you, but we’re going to uncap how much the bankers can make’.”
Sir Tom noted there were decisions that would pose real challenges for Scotland, especially in relation to the changes in income tax.
“As we know, income tax is devolved to Scotland,” he said, “and Scotland has been running a higher top end rate – only by a penny or so but it has been running a higher tax for higher earners than England.
“In Westminster they brought down the basic rate to 19 pence and abolished the top rate. We won’t know in Scotland if that’s going to affect us until maybe next week. Do you think it will make a difference to higher earning people?
“We talk in this show about the attraction and retention of talent. Do you think people will say: ‘I’m not going to pay more tax in Scotland.
I’m going to Manchester’?”
Lord Haughey expressed his belief there would be no exodus based solely on tax differences, but added: “There are things in Scotland for which we pay a bit more.
“The problem the Scottish Government have is they can only
act with the money they get from Westminster, so they have one hand tied behind their back.
“I don’t think anyone moved territory for one or two pence. But if you look at loads of things being more expensive, you might have an overall view it’s going to more, more expensive to live here than elsewhere.”
Sir Tom said: “If it’s one or two pence fine, but now they’ve abolished the top rate, what is Scotland’s answer going to be? We can only speculate, but if they left it in place, I think there might be a brain drain, so I hope they don’t. I hope they follow Westminster and don’t play petty politics.”
Lord Haughey said it would be the right thing to do but noted: “I doubt they will because in most of the budgets set out by the Scottish Government they tend to try to focus more on what they see happening to the people earning less and I don’t think they’ll be that worried about decreasing the 45p maximum.”
Sir Tom suggested there was good news, trailed before the mini-budget, in the reversal of the rise in National Insurance payments, adding: “I was really pleased to see this happening.
It means putting more money in consumers’ pockets.”
Agreeing this was good news, Lord Haughey concluded, with a note of caution: “I hope people don’t think this mini-budget is the answer to the cost-of-living crisis. It’s not. The one pence in income tax, the National Insurance cap – to a young family, all of this was wiped out with the rise in interest rates by the Bank of England the day before.”
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 here