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Budget 2010 comment

23 June 2010

The news that no further reductions in capital spending were announced in the Budget statement is reassuring, although, the comment that “this will be looked at again in the Autumn spending review”, means that judgement should probably be reserved until the detail of the review is revealed later in the year.

There also appears to be some recognition of the fact that such spending will drive growth with the announcement of Regional Development funds.

The VAT increase may effect consumer confidence and have an impact on repair, maintenance and improvement projects, one area to have suffered less from the economic downturn. Although in the short term (until the change comes into effect in 2011) it may actually stimulate demand.

The reduction and overall review of Corporation tax and the moves to help small businesses and encourage start up is a positive move, whether it is enough to stimulate the kind of growth required from the private sector remains to be seen.

As far as the housing market is concerned, the tightening of Local Authority spending may affect expenditure on social housing and the rise in Capital Gains tax for higher rate tax payers might affect the buy to let market, although the increase was not as high as expected. The much feared introduction of VAT on housing did not happen, so overall no nasty surprises for the house builders.

The headline 25% reduction in spending for ‘non-protected' departments has the potential to hit the newly passed Water and Flood Management Act. This Act was passed in response to the Pitt report, which examined how we deal with flood protection and prevention in the UK. The intention was to fund such initiatives centrally, via DEFRA, therefore it is safe to assume that such funding must be at risk.

There is clearly a need for some hefty belt-tightening to restore confidence in UK PLC, but it remains to be seen whether this is possible whilst not strangling growth and recovery.

Fiona Bashford
Marketing Manager

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