Autumn Budget 2024: Follow for live updates as Labour unveil £35m tax raid. What do YOU think of Labour's Budget? Email arthur.parashar@mailonline.co.ukPub bosses and business owners today described Labour's first Budget in 14 years as a 'complete disaster', while drivers and drinkers were left 'pleasantly surprised'.
Labour has devastated businesses by announcing a £25billion increase in employers' National Insurance contributions. Elsewhere, private pensions will be subject to inheritance tax, stamp duty has increased and capital gains tax for most assets has risen. Simon Delaney , who has owned The Firbank Pub and Kitchen, in Wythenshawe, Manchester, for 30 years, has raised major concerns over the hike in the National Living Wage
'It doesn't cost them anything and it's a bit of a red herring because on the last increase, all the employees think it's great. First of all, where does that money come from? When we're really really working on very low profit margins some weeks, not even breaking even, where does that money come from to pay an increase in wage.
Speaking about whether he feels his business is being supported, he said: 'The way I look at it, and this is the previous government and this government, I don't think they value the great British pub for what it does within the community.'Mr Delaney also says that 'we need to lower the duty', adding: 'We've been shouting that I think they did it in France. With the VAT. They lowered the VAT for hospitality, and it's thriving.
Mr Delaney fears that he will have to increase everyone else's wage with a rise in the National Living Wage. He has relocated to Dubai with his wife and three children, aged 14, seven and one, due to the 'uncertainty' following former chancellor Jeremy Hunt's announcement that the non-dom tax regime would be scrapped from April 2025.
'They have always been protected and the main reason we were invited. To then take that away, you're telling us we have to leave and we got the message loud and clear.'Mr Haidar owned more than 10 homes in central London, including a £20million five-bedroom flat in Chelsea, but he is now selling his UK assets.
'Most non-doms I know have left or are in the process of leaving. They have relocated to Dubai, Monaco and Geneva.' 'If the government wants to raise more taxes, charging non-doms £200,000 would raise double what they are expecting,' he claimed. 'If it increases with pension contributions then I won't be able to top up what is more than necessary as an employer.
Her family has also been hit hard by the decision to introduce VAT on private school fees which has seen costs for her five-year-old son Leo's education increase. She goes on holiday with her family at least three times a year and says a rise in Air Passenger Duty could mean they travel less and save up for longer.
'But what is the logic behind it? Is it going back to help the environment? Will the flights be on time? It sounds like they are filling up the coffers by any means.'Widower Elaine is in her 70s and spent 20 years caring for her late husband before he passed away. 'I didn't vote Labour. Rishi told everybody that if they voted Labour they'd get hit with the taxes, but nobody believed them.
The mother-of-two, from Edinburgh, who employs around 200 people at Pure Spa, which she started in 2002, says cannot afford this and will have to look at redundancies. She added: 'It's an absolute disaster, our industry is being decimated by every policy they seem to come up with. Mrs Lumsden says around 60 per cent of her costs are staff so a rise in the National Insurance rate for employers is 'disastrous'.'I don't feel like they're fairly sharing the burden. I think it's disproportionate, the burden will be felt hardest on small and medium businesses.'
Raegan Furness, with her daughters Kacie-rae, who is disabled, and Amelia-star, at home in Macclesfield, CheshireAs a mother, a landlord and a small business owner whose partner works for the emergency services, Sarah Dawood told MailOnline of the budget: 'Our necks are on the chopping block.'