PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

It was never going to be an easy task for the new Chancellor of the Exchequer to deliver a budget four weeks into his new job and with the ongoing crisis of the coronavirus outbreak at the front of everyone’s mind.  But from the point of view of the majority of firms, many would agree that he succeeded in making this the most business friendly budget for some time last week. Obviously, the headlines were his in initial efforts to support firms during the expected shutdown over the next few months to control the Covid-19 virus such as full business rate relief for the majority of small firms. Not surprisingly after the UK essentially came to a halt earlier this week, he vastly extended the amount of support last night by setting aside £330 billion of government guaranteed loans for struggling businesses with funding of up to £5 million available to each business with no interest for five months. No doubt this will be critical in ensuring that the majority of small to medium sized bu...

On Monday, the Chancellor of the Exchequer delivered his third budget to the House of Commons and whilst it was focused very much on showing that austerity was coming to an end through increases in public spending, it was also one which firmly had an eye on improving the economic performance of UK businesses. So what were some of the highlights from the 2018 budget that Welsh firms can look on positively as we approach our exit from the European Union? The first was the confirmation that a reduction in corporation tax to 17 per cent in April 2020 would now take place. Not only is this now likely to see more sole traders incorporating but corporation tax and how it can be varied once we leave the European Union – will probably become the weapon of economic choice by the UK Government if not all goes to plan with a Brexit deal. The Welsh economy has one of the highest dependency on manufacturing of any part of the UK and therefore the plans to increase the Annual Investment Allo...

As all magicians know, the art of misdirection is a form of deception in which the attention of an audience is focused on one thing in order to distract its attention from another. As he was coming to the end of his first budget speech of the new Conservative administration, George Osborne had given almost no indication that he still had one rabbit left to pull out of his hat. And when he announced that he would be introducing a National Living Wage, starting at £7.20 and rising to £9 an hour by 2020, the startled looks on the faces of the opposition benches resembled those old photographs of the audiences at Harry Houdini’s shows when he had, yet again, managed another spectacular escape from death. Of course, the devil is in the detail and whilst some small business groups, especially in the retail sector, were critical of the decision, it is nevertheless a political masterstroke that goes some way to reinforcing the Conservatives’ claim to be the party of the working people....

On Wednesday, George Osborne presented the penultimate budget of this Parliament to the country. Touted as a budget for “makers, doers and savers”, it did not disappoint as probably the most business friendly budget since 2010. One of the key changes for businesses in terms of encouraging growth is the decision to double the annual investment allowance to £500,000 until the end of 2015, enabling the vast majority of firms to receive full relief on expenditure in plant and machinery. Given that Wales is the most manufacturing intensive region in the UK, this should encourage higher levels of investment by businesses to promote greater productivity over the longer term which can only be good for the Welsh economy. In fact, if the Welsh Government wants to give the manufacturing sector a long overdue shot in the arm, then it could look to boost SMEs by providing a specific fund which would match any investment from Welsh firms and therefore maximising the benefit from this measure...

Last week, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer was announcing his measures for getting the British economy back on track, one of the most productive and innovative smaller economies in the World was also starting to implement its own budget measures to restructure its economy over the next few years. And unlike George Osborne, Tharman Shanmugaratnam – the Finance Minister for Singapore – decided that the restructuring of his nation’s economy over the next three years would be focused on supporting a dynamic small to medium sized enterprise (SME) sector. This would be achieved through developing a “Quality Growth Programme” to help businesses upgrade their facilities, create better jobs and raise wages. It would also focus specifically on improving productivity for individual companies and specific industries. One of the measures introduced under this plan that will certainly raise eyebrows in Europe is the support that the Singaporean Government is giving small businesses to rais...

Following last week’s Budget, it wasn’t going to be too hard to predict that, yet again, the opposition parties in Westminster would go on the airwaves demanding a u-turn from the Chancellor of the Exchequer on fiscal and economic policy. Yet it must have given George Osborne a considerable degree of comfort that the consensus from leading business organisations such as the CBI and the IOD is that reducing the deficit must be the overriding priority for the UK economy in the short to medium term. Indeed, it was generally agreed by the business community that there was actually very little scope for any major decisions, within the current financial situation, to turn around an economy that seems now to be largely dependent on whether greater confidence can be generated within the business community and amongst consumers which, in turn, seems to be dependent on whether further euro-crises are avoided. And ignoring the potential effect of Cypriot bank meltdowns, that is probably ...

Just over halfway through the current Coalition Government's term of office, there was a strange mix of anticipation and trepidation over the latest Autumn Statement from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, especially as the UK economy remains fragile. Given this, George Osborne must have been relieved that, despite disputes about economic and fiscal policies on the front pages, there was a broad welcome from the business community for most of the main measures announced. The £5.5 billion package to develop the UK's infrastructure was largely in response to pressure from business groups, with the Welsh Government receiving £227 million to spend on key capital projects via its Barnetised share of this funding. In addition, the decision to reduce the main rate of corporation tax to 21 per cent by 2014 is seen as not only supporting British businesses but also makes the UK a very attractive option for overseas investors. And whilst unexpected, the ten fold increase in the A...

When I began my academic career in 1992 at Durham University Business School, I worked on a project that, on every Budget Day, would look specifically at the Chancellor’s financial proposals and their implications for the small firm sector. In an age where tweeting was the noise made by a canary in a Warner Brothers cartoon and the fax machine was god, we spent time huddled around televisions trying to work out exactly what the implications were for the entrepreneurial community as the Chancellor spoke from the House of Commons. Our analysis would then be written up by teams of academics and edited into one report. This would then be printed off overnight in the North East of England before being flown down to London first thing in the morning where TSB, the sponsor, would distribute to their clients at a morning press conference. How different the response to the Chancellor’s budget has been this year, with both politicians and pundits racing each other to be the first out wit...