Business West React to the Autumn Statement

Reacting to the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement and Spending Review, Ian Larrard, Director of the Swindon and Wiltshire Initiative, part of Business West, says it contained some positive news for the region.

“Once again the 'builder' Chancellor has used the tools at his disposal to create a Statement that the majority of businesses will applaud.  The statement, widely predicted as being gloomy, was surprisingly upbeat in business terms as he started by citing the South West as a well performing region with the lowest unemployment rate in the country.

“The first win for business was the increased funding for much needed infrastructure improvements, for example the £2 billion investment to upgrade the A303. Businesses can only operate as well as the environment they are in, and the announcement that Britain will be spending a higher proportion of its income on infrastructure than at the start of the parliament will be met with applause. This included big increases in the transport capital investment budget, with a 50% rise.

“We then heard the Chancellor turn to 'huge reform to raise the skills of the nation'. High youth unemployment and business skills gaps are a cause for national embarrassment, and in Swindon we are working with both business and education to bridge this gap. A package of reform for education along with details of the Apprenticeship Levy will be welcomed by businesses from the smallest to the largest. Although there are reservations as to how this will work in practice.

“It was also good to see political emphasis on fixing the housing crisis. The doubling of the housing budget was welcome news, but the overwhelming emphasis on home ownership may be a mixed blessing. On the one hand, higher skilled workers are likely to want to own their own home, so making this easier should make them more likely to stay in our region. However the lack of lower cost rented options may start to hit the lower part of our labour market. It is also worrying to see that the Office of Budget Responsibility is still predicting that house price rises will continue to outstrip earnings.”