Chancellor Rishi Sunak MP has delivered his first Budget, announcing a series of measures to support businesses this year in light of uncertainty over COVID-19 (Coronavirus).
Short term measures announced by the Chancellor include:
- Suspending business rates in the coming financial year for any business with a rateable value of £51,000 or less
- Providing a £3,000 grant for the smallest businesses that are eligible for small business rate relief or rural rate relief
- Funding of statutory sick pay for up to 14 days for businesses with fewer than 250 employees
Association of Convenience Stores chief executive James Lowman said: “We strongly welcome the Chancellor’s actions to reduce the burden of business rates in the short term. Ensuring that all businesses under £51,000 rateable value pay no business rates in the coming financial year will benefit the convenience sector to the tune of over £30m, and we look forward to hearing further details of the fundamental review in the Autumn.”
“The £3,000 grant will be of great benefit to over 18,000 of the smallest convenience stores who mostly trade in rural and isolated areas, helping them to continue providing an essential service to their local communities.”
Other measures announced in the Budget include:
- Increasing Employee National Insurance Contributions tax threshold from £8,632 to £9,500
- Increasing the employment allowance to £4,000
- Freezing duty rates on beer, spirits cider and wine
- Freezing duty rates on fuel
- Duty rates on tobacco to increase by RPI + 2%, with the rate on hand rolling tobacco rising by RPI + 6% this year
- Increased resources for Trading Standards and HMRC to combat the illicit tobacco trade, including the creation of a UK-wide HMRC intelligence sharing hub
Mr Lowman continued: “We welcome the Government’s attention on tackling the illicit tobacco trade, which is extremely damaging to responsible retailers. We will work with HMRC on the details of the intelligence hub, and are keen to ensure that track and trace regulations on tobacco are effective and continue to be supported.”
The Budget document states that the Government will ‘bring forward legislation to protect access to cash to those who need it’, but there are currently no further details available.
The full Budget document is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/871799/Budget_2020_Web_Accessible_Complete.pdf
