“Retail relief was providing a discount for pubs with a rateable value of £50k or less, which is 75 per cent of all pubs”. This legislation will be introduced in the Finance Bill 2017. For these, the £1,500 could be the difference between the life and death of the business.
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George Osborne controversially made no amendments to the tampon tax VAT on female sanitary products, with campaigners against the tax criticising the Chancellor’s move that seems to be an attempt to justify the tax rather than scrapping it, with the money raised reportedly being donated to women’s causes.
One department that faces a 37% cut in its day-to-day operating costs is the Department for Transport.
“This extra tax is may well have the effect of distorting payroll costs even further and is likely to undermine in-work investment and training in staff”, she added.
“So potentially, £160 – 165 million we need to find in cuts”.
Kevin Hurley told Eagle Radio just last week that cuts to police budget was putting the country in danger following the Paris terrorist attacks.
The Chancellor has stunned critics with his reversals – and the Spending Review also revealed plans to protect police funding, as well as increase spending on health and education.
He also announced plans to boost property ownership as he delivered the so-called Autumn Statement, one of two showpiece budget updates.
Many were hoping for a more drastic shakeup to business rates.
The Treasury chief picked it up and said: “Oh look!”
Along with beer duty, the bill for business rates was blamed for the industry’s hefty tax burden.
It argued that with five years of cuts already heaped on councils, the latest round of austerity measures would effectively stifle the introduction of new or expanded recycling services.
The government aims to provide all small businesses and individuals with access to digital tax accounts by 2016-17. It is expected to benefit around a third (approximately 15,000) of pubs, delivering around £25m in savings.
The tax break means companies with property worth less than £6,000 are exempt from business rates, with a reduced rate payable for those with property worth less than £12,000.
“However, the local impact of changes to the business rates policies needs to be properly understood, and it is a shame there were not specific commitments for the East Midlands or Lincolnshire”.
Meanwhile, Osborne announced that anyone who claims pension credit, a means-tested benefit for those on low pensioner incomes, will have their payments stopped if they are out of the United Kingdom for more than four weeks.
“We still have significant concerns about the devolution of rate-setting powers to local authorities, given how little existing discretionary rate relief-setting powers have been used to support businesses”.
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Councils will see a near halving of their central government grant – forcing them to sell assets, draw on reserves and raise council tax by £2bn in order to prevent the collapse of social care in England.
