Advantage Travel Partnership has welcomed comments from Chancellor John Healey that next week’s Budget, on Wednesday 28 October, will focus on easing the pressure on businesses, but warned that independent travel agents need action rather than words.
In an interview with The Times, John Healey said he wanted to be a chancellor who ‘backs business in Britain making a profit’. He said he was giving the cost of running a business the same weight as the cost of living.
The Chancellor acknowledged that firms had faced mounting pressure in recent years from changes to employment law, regulation, higher taxes, rising input costs and strained supply chains. He is expected to use his first fiscal event to cut red tape. According to The Times, reporting requirements are likely to be scrapped for many smaller businesses.
The Chancellor has also reportedly ruled out a rise in capital gains tax, partly over concerns about its impact on business investment, and he said he was conscious of employer worries over increases to the minimum wage for younger workers.
Julia Lo Bue-Said OBE, Advantage CEO and spokesperson for the UK Outbound Travel Group, said: “The Chancellor’s recognition that businesses are under pressure and that the cost of doing business matters alongside the cost of living is welcome.
“Independent travel agents are exactly the kind of entrepreneurial, locally rooted SMEs the Budget should support. But warm words must translate into practical action: fairer business rates and clearer, more proportionate regulation that removes unnecessary complexity rather than creating further costs for small firms.
“Backing these businesses would give them greater confidence to invest, recruit and grow, helping turn the promise of growth in every postcode into reality.”
The Budget comes against a challenging economic backdrop. Inflation rose to 3.5% in September from 3.1% in August, and national debt has passed £3 trillion for the first time.
