The Autumn Statement contained pluses and minuses but nothing earth shattering, according to Dominic Bourquin, tax consultancy partner at regional accountancy firm Monahans, which has offices in Swindon and Chippenham.
“On the plus side, anyone over 25 will be due at least a national living wage of £7.50, up by 30p on the current level, so that’s good news for them,” said Dominic, pictured below. 
“The extent to which that may prove inflationary – many employers could find that additional cost hard to absorb – remains to be seen.
“We’ll all see the benefit of the rise in personal allowance to £11,500 and a lot of entrepreneurs and business leaders will welcome the increase in the higher rate threshold to £50,000 by 2020 too.”
The postponement of the increase in fuel duty would clearly be a relief to hauliers, fleet managers and SMEs, and everyone would eventually feel the lift as it trickles down the food chain to our weekly shop.
“A £2.3bn housing infrastructure fund to open up sites for up to 100,000 homes should be welcomed, but forgive me if I’m a little sceptical about the subject of delivery of affordable housing – it does feel as if we’ve been here several times before,” he said.
“And the move to prevent letting agents charging potential tenants upfront fees seems noble enough, until you consider that if landlords have to absorb those costs, it’s only a matter of time until they resurface in the form of higher rents.”
He said there was evidence of some promises being kept. The Chancellor confirmed that corporation tax would still fall to 19% by next April and to 17% by 2020 as planned, “which is good news for SMES and larger companies alike”.
He added: “What will be not quite so welcome to many consultants and labour-intensive operations that are on flat rate VAT is that they will no longer be able to retain a large a portion of the VAT they charge, but will have to hand most of it over to the VATman. The loss of that ‘handling fee’ is going to put a bit of a dent in a lot of profits.”
Anyone receiving salary sacrifice benefits should gird their loins. “Your pensions, childcare and cycling-to-work benefits are safe, but you’re going to have to say goodbye to the others,” he said.
“On the other hand, if you’re in receipt of in-work benefits the amount by which they taper off as you work longer hours will be reduced, as the Government attempts to reward those who work more.”
He said the increase in insurance premium tax from 10% to 12% was a “slightly sneaky move”.
“That’s a tax on your travel insurance, house insurance, business insurance – so its additional cost is not to be underestimated,” he said.
“If you have the time, or can’t sleep tonight, you can go online and look at the full 70-page Autumn Statement document. If you have better things to do with your time, let me sum it up for you. It contains nothing earth-shattering. But then again, who really thought it would?”
Jon Lacey, accounts director with Swindon-based chartered firm Regulatory Accounting, pictured left, also said the Autumn Statement held few surprises and the devil would be in the detail as to whether it would have a positive or negative impact overall.
But he did welcome the Chancellor’s decision to scrap the Autumn Statement and move the Budget from spring to autumn.
“Having the full Budget in the autumn will make it easier to plan ahead for businesses,” he said.
Many of today’s measures had already been announced, such as increasing the personal allowance, the reduction in corporation tax and the new investment fund, said Jon.
“The announcement that the National Living Wage will increase to £7.50 was new. Employers may find this increase a challenge, and employees may feel it doesn’t go far enough,” he added.
“The news that £2.3bn is being made available to provide infrastructure for new homes to unlock previously unavailable areas looks good on paper, but in reality this will depend on where the housing will go.
“It was concerning that the Chancellor was talking about self-employment and tax avoidance in the same breath; particularly where they bear significantly more risks and have none of the benefits of employees. Again, we’ll need to see the detail on how he intends to address this.”
Lettings agency mlettings managing director Martin West, pictured below, said the Chancellor’s previously trailed commitment to abolish letting agents’ fees would do nothing to help tenants or ease the housing crisis. 
“We’re pleased that the government is looking at the rental sector, but this vote-grabber and headline-maker is not the way forward, as it will be popular with tenants only in the short-term,” he said.
“Agents have to charge fair and reasonable fees, and it is inevitable these will now be passed on to the landlords, who – already under pressure from recent tax changes – will pass these onto the tenant via higher rents.
“This is a government that relies on the private rental sector to solve the chronic housing shortage in the UK and clearly does not understand the implications of this measure, which in my view will not benefit tenants in the long run.”
Martin said the average fee charged by an Association of Residential Letting Agents member is £200 per applicant and mlettings’ fees are significantly lower for a couple.
He added: “A major problem that we have within the industry is rogue landlords – this will do absolutely nothing to combat this significant negative affect on tenants and the quality of housing.
“A disappointing day for the industry, for landlords and for the very people the government are trying to help – the tenants.”
The Cricklade-based agency specialises in letting properties in Swindon, Chippenham and Cirencester.
Institute of Directors regional chairman Nick Sturge, pictured left, was surprised to see the sudden scrapping of the salary sacrifice scheme next April, which he said would “hit larger SMEs and corporates – and with little notice and time to implement”.
However, he welcomed the “significant investment” in money for universities as it would encourage and assist them to work more with businesses.
“We look forward to seeing the Industrial Strategy which we expect to provide more detail,” he said.
“We are pleased that there will be significant investment in broadband and with the £191m going to South West Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and £400m going into the British Business Bank – and the hint that this may be targeted outside the South East.
“We hope that will increase the money available to tech, digital and other firms wanting to scale up.”
