Budget Viewpoint: A political Budget aimed at blue rinsers not business March 19, 2014 CONFIDENCE up. Inflation down. Exports up. Unemployment down. Growth forecasts up. With this backdrop it must have been difficult for George Osborne to draw up his fifth Budget. But what we have ended up with is a Budget for blue rinsers rather than businesses. He obviously thinks that everything is heading in the right direction [...]
High street bookmakers lose out in betting machine clampdown March 19, 2014 TWO OF THE biggest bookmakers on the high street lost a combined £460m from their stock market valuations yesterday after a 25 per cent tax rate was announced for fixed-odds betting machines. William Hill saw £270m wiped off its market capitalisation after the chancellor announced that tax on the machines would be raised from 20 [...]
Bingo operators to invest as they hit jackpot on tax drop March 19, 2014 BINGO halls got a boost yesterday as the rate of duty was cut by the government from 20 per cent to just 10 per cent. Chancellor George Osborne said he would go further than the 15 per cent rate that the industry had requested, by halving the existing rate from 30 June. Bingo hall operator [...]
Osborne sets £119bn welfare cap March 19, 2014 THE CAP on welfare spending, first proposed by the coalition government in June 2013, will be set at £119.5bn for 2014-15, the chancellor announced in his Budget statement yesterday. The cap will include 26 different benefits and payments but will exclude Jobseeker’s Allowance and its associated benefits, the state pension and a few smaller specific [...]
Parents receive childcare boost March 19, 2014 WORKING parents were given a boost yesterday by the government’s pledge to extend its tax-deductible childcare costs cap to £10,000 per year. This means parents will now receive up to £2,000 worth of support per child, up from £1,200 in last year’s Budget. The scheme will be rolled out to eligible families with children under [...]
Brewers cheer beer price relief as cost of fags raised by 28p per pack March 19, 2014 PUBS, Scottish whisky distilleries and West Country cider brewers will all benefit from alcohol tax changes announced yesterday, while the tobacco industry faces increasing duty on cigarettes. The reforms announced in the Budget include a two per cent reduction on beer duty, amounting to a penny price drop in most pubs, for the second year [...]
Big projects on back burner but London backed March 19, 2014 LONDON housing and transport projects got the chancellor’s blessing yesterday, though shovel-ready projects across the rest of the country were thin on the ground. George Osborne said the government will help “develop proposals” for an extension to the Gospel Oak to Barking Line to reach Barking Riverside, a 11,000-home scheme, and support regeneration at Brent [...]
Osborne helps air passengers and car drivers March 19, 2014 LONG-HAUL flyers got a surprise tax cut yesterday as the chancellor flattened air passenger duty (APD) rates. In a move explicitly aimed at flights to and from South Asia and other fast-growing economies, George Osborne cut the rate for all flights over 2,000 miles to as little as £67 for an economy class ticket. The [...]
Carbon tax savings to help UK manufacturers March 19, 2014 UK INDUSTRY received a £7bn boost yesterday when the chancellor unveiled a package of energy savings for manufacturers, which includes freezing a controversial carbon tax. Energy intensive industries (EII) argue that the carbon price floor, which taxes fossil fuel emissions, makes firms unable to compete with their rivals in Europe and the US. Capping the [...]
Revenue guarantees for power plants in new market reforms March 19, 2014 NEW POWER plants will be able to receive revenue guarantees for up to 15 years, under new market reforms confirmed by the government yesterday. The capacity market rules aim to ensure that there is sufficient energy supply in place to meet demand by securing agreements between energy providers and suppliers. These agreements will be up [...]