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Budget 2010: The £4.5bn hammer blow for business
By Becky Barrow
Last updated at 8:42 AM on 25th March 2010
Alistair Darling's £245million package for struggling small businesses has been described as little comfort by lobby groups
Struggling businesses were handed a £245million package to help them through the credit crisis - but it is dwarfed by a £4.5billion 'tax on jobs' next year.
The Chancellor insisted he is offering a 'wide range of support for businesses', which are collapsing at a rate of 700 a week.
Alistair Darling's £245million package for struggling small businesses has been described as little comfort by lobby groups
But lobby groups said Alistair Darling's measures will be a crumb of comfort after he stuck with plans to hike National Insurance contributions paid by employers from April next year.
The one percentage point rise will cost firms £4.5billion next year and a further £4.7billion in the following tax year.
John Walker, chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: 'The increase in National Insurance will be bad for job creation. Our research shows that the increase will cost 57,000 jobs in the UK. It is a tax on jobs which will do nothing to aid economic growth.'
In a further blow to businesses, the Budget sneaked out plans for a sharp rise in the national minimum wage.
From October, it will increase by 2.2 per cent to £5.93 per hour.
The move, coming as millions of workers face a pay freeze, or even a pay cut, is an obvious sop to the unions.
Dr Adam Marshall, director of policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, said: 'The minimum wage increase took some of the shine off a Budget that had small and medium-sized businesses at its heart.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1260463/Budget-2010-The-4-5bn-hammer-blow-business.html
By Becky Barrow
Last updated at 8:42 AM on 25th March 2010
Alistair Darling's £245million package for struggling small businesses has been described as little comfort by lobby groups
Struggling businesses were handed a £245million package to help them through the credit crisis - but it is dwarfed by a £4.5billion 'tax on jobs' next year.
The Chancellor insisted he is offering a 'wide range of support for businesses', which are collapsing at a rate of 700 a week.
Alistair Darling's £245million package for struggling small businesses has been described as little comfort by lobby groups
But lobby groups said Alistair Darling's measures will be a crumb of comfort after he stuck with plans to hike National Insurance contributions paid by employers from April next year.
The one percentage point rise will cost firms £4.5billion next year and a further £4.7billion in the following tax year.
John Walker, chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: 'The increase in National Insurance will be bad for job creation. Our research shows that the increase will cost 57,000 jobs in the UK. It is a tax on jobs which will do nothing to aid economic growth.'
In a further blow to businesses, the Budget sneaked out plans for a sharp rise in the national minimum wage.
From October, it will increase by 2.2 per cent to £5.93 per hour.
The move, coming as millions of workers face a pay freeze, or even a pay cut, is an obvious sop to the unions.
Dr Adam Marshall, director of policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, said: 'The minimum wage increase took some of the shine off a Budget that had small and medium-sized businesses at its heart.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1260463/Budget-2010-The-4-5bn-hammer-blow-business.html
