Autumn Budget 2024: Follow for live updates as Labour unveil £35m tax raid. What do YOU think of Labour's Budget? Email [email protected] 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.' 'I genuinely had nothing,' she said. 'And my parents were both working people, and we didn't have a lot.
But after amassing a portfolio of property, Ms Dawood, who moved out of London to Essex in 2020, feared a rise in inheritance tax would tarnish the legacy she leaves for her children. Ms Dawood, who also owns a small utilities company, was also fearing the worst from hikes employers' national insurance.
'But to me what's going to happen is that all of these extra costs are just going to put more and more pressure on businesses, all kinds of businesses, not just small businesses, but businesses at all stage.Carol Evans , a 56-year-old entrepreneur who has owned multiple businesses over the last 20 years, said her greatest concern is the change in the employers' National Insurance
'I do think it's that whilst this this is all about the Autumn statement, and how it's going to affect people, I think generally what I'll be saying is that we can't wait for these things to be in our favour. We have to do what we can ourselves.'When you're spending money that you don't need to be spending, or things aren't as efficient or effective as they should be. And I worry that the slightest increase in costs will put some businesses out of business.
'It's been very hard without the winter fuel allowance because I have blood cancer and need the heating all the time,' she said. 'There are people like me who have cancer, are cold and need the money. Keir Starmer taking the fuel allowance is not fair at all.' 'My mum is not wealthy, she is working class and can't afford her winter fuel,' she said. 'She's immunocompromised and they're doing this to her.
Tom Harrison fears the Budget will leave him poorer as a pensioner and pointed to Labour's treatment of the elderly as cause for concern. 'It is just less money- it will affect those pensioners who are just above the threshold but not by a great deal. He still works nine hours a week at a Cotswold Outdoor store where he fits customers with walking and running shoes and says the money is 'handy'.
She was concerned about changes to capital gains tax rates and inheritance tax as she will soon need to sell her parents' home and investments to pay for their dementia care. The 42-year-old landlord, from Kent, said of the Budget: 'The government's approach to landlords is fast resembling a Monty Python sketch: endless hoops, rising taxes, and a litany of regulations make you wonder if they're hoping to drive every last one of us to 'find something more respectable' to do, leaving aside being a 'landlord' which has already been cursed to being the job for the devil.
'This increase in stamp duty is another kick in the teeth for small landlords up and down the country.' 'To keep the market buoyant, the government must pivot—rethink these tax hikes and invest in sustainable support for the rental sector. Otherwise, in two years, we may find the UK's rental market unrecognisable, with housing scarcity at an all-time high.'
'If the government really wants to 'level up,' it could start by recognising who actually props up this economy.'Steven West, a sweet manufacturer from North Wales, has been left shocked by a hike in employer National Insurance, following a tumultuous few years. Speaking about the increase in employer national insurance, he said: 'We employ 26 people so this means we need to find a way to reduce our payroll by about 30 hours a week just to stand still, and this is without any other measures yet to be announced.
'Changes to CGT are concerning because you start to look at the impact and how attractive the UK could be to investors. The 72-year-old from London relies on shares and investments and says a reduction in his income will have a negative impact on his standard of living. 'I have been putting money into ISAs in order to avoid capital gains tax and have been thinking about taking all my money out of investments and putting it into them.'
The 50-year-old says he has no choice but to increase prices and that these policies in the budget will spell the end of many businesses. Mr Barton, who owns The Village Inn, The Loft and The Nightingale in Birmingham, employs around 100 people and the rise in NIC will cost his businesses £36,000 a year, at a time when they were already trading at a loss.
She struggled to be able to work and ended up relying on payday loans to keep her and her family afloat. 'I would welcome a rise in minimum wage with open arms', she said. I'm a carer. I am in a residential home, and I just think that for what I do every day on a daily basis, the pay isn't good. 'I only have 25 per cent discount in council tax, where I think I should be having 50 per cent because I am one of two people.FAMILY: 'We're not a happy household'
'I have been a bit of an emotional wreck since it was announced,' she said. 'There's a real misunderstanding of the private sector and those that use it.'It's really destabilising for us as a family. We have spent thousands of pounds and went without for a number of years and we potentially won't get the education for them.'
She has been struggling mentally since Labour announced it would impose VAT on private school fees from January 1.'It's horrible and it has badly affected me and my mental health has suffered significantly at a time where I have to be performing well to earn more and pay for this.Charlie Boliston, 64, is looking at retiring soon but is concerned the government's budget will leave him poorer and he won't have saved enough money.
Charlie Boliston , 64, is looking at retiring soon but is concerned the government's budget will leave him poorer and he won't have saved enough money