BPF responds to Budget
Thursday, 21 March 2013
The Chancellor George Osborne delivered today his Budget statement. The BPF led Seven Associations wrote to the Chancellor with proposals on 6th March and BPF President Philip Watkins and Director-General Peter Davis discussed these proposals with the Chancellor on his visit to BPF member Albis on 1st March.
Peter Davis Director-General of the BPF said “We are delighted that the Chancellor agreed to our request to cancel the September Fuel Duty increase which would have hit our companies’ competitiveness. We are also pleased that he has announced a further cut in Corporation Tax down to 20% from April 2015, which will keep and attract investment in the Plastics Industry”.
On the Chancellor’s Help to Buy proposals Peter Davis said, “In our letter to the Chancellor and our discussions with him at Albis we urged him to do more to stimulate the bottom end of the private housing market. We are very pleased he has launched 'Help to Buy' with shared equity loans up to 20% of the value of a new built home to help people who can’t afford a big deposit. This should stimulate house building and refurbishment and help our members producing construction products”.
The Chancellor is also boosting spending on infrastructure by £3bn a year from 2015/16. A small amount but every little helps.
Peter Davis said, “We welcome his introduction of a generous new tax regime for Shale Gas exploration but are disappointed there was not more emphasis on ensuring UK industry has long term access to affordable and plentiful energy supplies, with a serious energy supply deficit on the horizon”.
The Chancellor announced welcome measures to benefit small plastics companies particularly:
- Introducing a new £2000 Employment Allowance to reduce employer NICS contributions for all businesses.
- Doubling to £10k the size of loans that employers can offer tax free to pay for items such as season tickets. - Increasing the above the line R & D credit to 10%.
Peter Davis said, “These measures should help stimulate employment and investment in Plastics companies”.
ENDS
For all media enquiries, BPF logos and images, please contact Philip Law, Public & Industrial Affairs Director on 0207 457 5000 or email [email protected]
Please see Seven Associations' letter to Chancellor (06/03/13) below.
Notes for editors:
British Plastics Federation (BPF) is the UK trade association for the plastics industry – representing the whole supply chain including polymer producers, distributors, additives suppliers, machinery manufacturers, processors and recyclers.
