Osborne doubles annual investment fund for companies to £500,000 until end of 2015 March 19, 2014 THE MAJOR change for business investment in the Budget comes from a doubling of the investment allowance, which rises to £500,000 from next month. The annual investment allowance has been on a roller coaster ride in the past four years. In its 2010 Budget, the previous government raised it from £50,000 to £100,000. By the [...]
Sustained bank levy takes £3bn from lenders March 19, 2014 BANKS will cough up almost £3bn in bank levy payments every year for the forseeable future, as the sums on which the tax is based are re-calculated. The chancellor did not increase the rate yesterday, as he had already hiked it to 0.156 per cent of big banks’ balance sheets, the levy’s seventh rise since [...]
Funding for UK export finance scheme hiked in focus on trade March 19, 2014 UK EXPORT Finance’s lending scheme will be doubled to £3bn and made permanent, as part of a Budget emphasis on trade. The Treasury announced that it would enhance the policy by allowing the loans to be extended at the lowest interest rates that are legally possible. The Budget changes also double the size of the global [...]
Small firms get second chance to secure loans March 19, 2014 REJECTED small business loan applications will be offered around alternative lenders, under plans announced by the chancellor yesterday, so the firms have a better chance of getting credit. It comes after SMEs complained it could take a damagingly large amount of time and effort to apply to lender after lender for a loan. The consultation [...]
Competition drive to make it easier for customers to compare current accounts March 19, 2014 BANK customers could keep their account numbers when they move between lenders, under a consultation planned by the City watchdog for September this year. And the big banks have agreed to give customers standardised data on their transactions so they can use the Money Saving Expert website to better compare the accounts on offer. Meanwhile the [...]
Chancellor unveils new pound coin designed to beat forgery March 19, 2014 A NEW £1 coin will be introduced to help counteract forgery, the chancellor has confirmed. George Osborne said that the existing pound coin, which has been in circulation since 1983, will be replaced in 2017 with a 12-sided coin modelled on the old threepenny bit. The new coin, which will be made of two different [...]
Britons offered £150m help to build own home March 19, 2014 BRITONS will be encouraged to buy land from the council to build their own homes, under a £150m scheme being consulted on by the government. Proposals for a new right to build scheme, announced by the chancellor yesterday, would allow custom builders a right to a plot of land from councils on which they can [...]
Stamp duty clampdown on people buying houses through companies March 19, 2014 GEORGE Osborne yesterday stepped up his assault on investors who buy homes through company structures to avoid tax, by lowering the stamp duty threshold to homes worth more than £500,000. In his annual Budget speech Osborne said that Britain would expand the 15 per cent stamp duty on homes bought through corporate envelopes to those [...]
Government extends small firm grants to boost apprenticeships March 19, 2014 GEORGE Osborne yesterday pledged to extend a grant scheme for small businesses, to support over 100,000 more apprenticeships so that young people can develop the skills they need to get ahead. The government will provide an extra £85m in both 2014-15 and 2015-16 for the extra grants. “To make sure we give young people the [...]
New garden city to be built in Ebbsfleet March 19, 2014 THE GOVERNMENT yesterday confirmed that it will set up an urban development corporation to support a new garden city at Ebbsfleet in Kent, where up to 15,000 new homes will be built. A total of £200m of infrastructure funding will be available to kick-start the development of what will be the first new garden city [...]