Dear Members,
I thought you might be interested in some thoughts on the Spring Statement.
There appear to be two main driving forces.
Firstly that of Donald Trump looking to increase Europe’s spending to support NATO. You may have noticed a theme in the mainstream media about his team insulting us by insulting Europe. I think there is a very real concern that America is supporting the defence and security of Europe at a time when the French and Germans see NATO as English speaking, and want to build their own military, whilst excluding Britain from participation as part of their attempts to ruin our Fishing industry. History shows us that a militarised France and Germany do not make for world peace, and their current unilateral actions support this. It is starting to feel like the 1930’s again.
Secondly, Reeves’s attempts to be seen to balance the books in line with the OBR forecasts. There are a couple of problems with this, the OBR forecasts are notoriously inaccurate, and what we need is growth in the economy which is not helped by higher national debt and business taxes.
Key Points of the Budget
- Making Tax Digital to be expanded to evermore small businesses and sole traders. (Seeking to improve Government Cash Flow at the expense of Growth)
- Increase in Employers NI from 13.8 to 15% from April 2025 (A tax on employment)
- The removal of VAT exemption for private schools (A tax on innovation)
- A Comittment to Annual Investment allowance capped at £1 Million for qualifying Capital Expenditure
- An increase in the National Minimum Wage from April 2025 (A tax on employment)
- An extra £2 billion for social Housing. Aim to build 1.5 million extra homes in England (In support of the Construction Lobby and further immigration)
- An increase in defence spending from 2.5% to 3% of GDP by the next parliament
- Corporation Tax to remain high at 25%
- Seeking to Cut Social security costs through Work Incentives.
- An initiative to spend £3.25 Billion on cutting Government overhead. (Curious approach to cutting costs)
- Bring NHS England under DHSC.(Be interesting to watch what if any savings are made here)
- Changes to the non Domiciled tax remittance system.
Overall they are increasing our National Debt and associated interest, and increasing costs to business, when what we need is the opposite in both cases.
You can watch the statement CLICK here
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