Yesterday’s Budget Announcement by Chancellor George Osborne, has generated a mixed response from the industry.
Dr Diana Montgomery, chief executive of the Construction Products Association (CPA), said: “First, as we have continued to highlight the need for government to clarify its plans to support house building, we are pleased with the innovative ‘Help to Buy ISA’ scheme. This should stimulate home-buyers’ interest in the near term and house builders’ confidence in the medium term – a tonic to the flattening demand we forecast for the private housing sector after the uncertainty of the General Election.”
She continued: “Second, many of our members, including the steel sector, are energy intensive manufacturers. The plans announced today to bring forward from 2016 to 2015 the compensation for the indirect costs of small-scale feed-in-tariffs are a step in the right direction to improving their competitiveness with European neighbours and levelling that playing field. We only note that a sizeable number of our manufacturers will remain outside this plan and will not see any alleviation of their high energy costs.”
Chief executive of the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), Brian Berry, said: “It’s been a long and bumpy road since the Richard Review first touted the idea of putting the purchasing power back in the hands of the employer but today the Government has finally set out a clear direction of travel in terms of its apprenticeship funding reforms. The new digital apprenticeship voucher model is a vast improvement on what was formerly proposed.
“However, we do still have some concerns about the potential for this new system to add additional administrative burden for small firms. To counter this, we will be working closely with the next Government to minimise any added bureaucracy.”
He continued: “For SMEs, bureaucracy is the biggest barrier to engagement in any scheme so industry and government must work together to help ensure this new system does not have a detrimental impact on apprenticeship numbers.”
Justin O’Hagan, tax partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers said: “This Budget wasn't a radical one for UK industry but there was some welcome news with the announcement of a review of Business Rates. This had been seen as long overdue by many. The abolition of National Insurance for under-21s and young apprentices is a welcome development for employers and we expect this to create more jobs in industry for young people.”
Finally, Philippa Oldham, head of transport and manufacturing at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said: “There are some welcome investments as part of today’s budget including the £60 million earmarked for the a new Energy Research Accelerator in the Midlands and the £138 million investment towards the UK Centre for Collaboratorium for Research in Infrastructure and Cities. These investments will hopefully help spur innovation and enable more joined-up cross sectorial thinking when developing new city infrastructure.”