Work Hard and Succeed

A Budget for People who aspire to work hard and get on ..... That's how Mr Osborne outlined his Budget this week. And I was pleased to hear that the theme was Aspiration.

Personally, I wanted to see something that would help business owners. There has been a lot of debate about welfare benefits, cuts, the EU and people who are on the poverty line. These are important issues but they are not the only ones. We need to be able to attract and build businesses to continue the upward trend of employment in the private sector and to give hope to thousands of youngsters. Under Labour the youth unemployment just kept going up and up, so this is not a recent problem. There is so much more to do, so much more to help young people. These 4 things are a good start.

1. Reduction in the Rate of Corporation Tax. Company taxation has been in the headlines a lot recently with anger directed at some large organisations that seem able to avoid paying tax in the UK. But now we have the Chancellor trying to attract international Companies by reducing the Tax Rate to 20% by 2015. The benefit of this is reliant on making money in the first place but is much needed.

2. A new employment allowance. From April 2014 - employers will receive an allowance that will cut the first £2000 from their National Insurance bills. In real terms this means that 450,000 - a third of all employers won't pay any NI at all. And this one move will benefit up to 1.25 million employers overall. This is an effective way for the government to support Entrepreneurs as they grow their business. 

3. Fuel Duty. Mr Osborne announced a Fuel Duty freeze, scrapping a petrol duty escalator that had been planned for the autumn. Fuel affects all of us whether it’s running a haulage firm, driving to work or just buying food in the shops. This is really good news.

4. Infrastructure. George Osborne also announced that an extra £3bn will be pumped into infrastructure projects such as road, rail and power station building from 2015–16 - He said investing in the "economic arteries" of the UK will get growth flowing to "every part of it".. 

I didn’t expect the budget to blow us all away but overall it felt quite positive and in line with an Aspiration Nation. Much  better  than One  Nation  Notion.