Event professionals are
lamenting a “disappointing” Spring Budget from chancellor Jeremy Hunt on
Wednesday (15 March).
A lack of investment in
sustainability and the absence of any help to address staff shortages or
recruit more young people into the sector were just some of the issues highlighted.
“We called upon the chancellor
to provide support more specifically appropriate to our industry and its issues
and there was none,” said Simon Richards, finance director of beam and MD of Convenus. “That highlights
again the need for everyone to support the work of all those who are
endeavouring to build within government awareness and understanding of our
industry and its distinctive issues. The SIC codes are increasingly important
in this.
“We specifically wanted help
with recruiting more young people into the industry and to address staff
shortages. We welcome the new concept of Returnerships and the expansion of childcare
provisions as both of these may well bring new people into our industry where
they will be trained and also bring back experienced staff.
“However initiatives such as
the Events Apprenticeships scheme are vital to the future of our industry but
they need government seed money to kick start them and a re-think on how the
levy works. It is disappointing that there isn’t any consideration in the
Budget for this.”
Michael
Begley, managing director of venuedirectory.com, highlighted Hunt’s lack of investment
in sustainability.
“As
a committed advocate of increasing sustainability, I was disappointed that
there was so little new investment to help us save the planet and nothing that
would directly encourage more sustainable behaviour in the our industry,” he
said.
“While
I welcome £20bn towards carbon capture, usage and storage, and the £8.8bn over
five years towards city region sustainable transport, we need this to be
nationwide. What we really need is more incentives to encourage best practice
and change behaviours, at home and in business.”
Hunt tried to frame his Spring Budget as a "back-to-work" budget, aimed at getting young parents and over-50s back into work.
Spring budget at a glance
- 30 hours of free childcare in England has been
expanded to cover one and two year olds, to be phased in from April 2024
- Government subsidies aimed at keeping household
energy bills at around £2,500 extended for three months until the end of June
- Pensions lifetime allowance (LTA) ceiling abolished,
helping high earners put money in their pension pots without being hit by
punitive tax rates.
- Main rate of corporation tax to increase from 19
per cent to 25 per cent for businesses with taxable profits over £250,000.
- Corporation tax will be between 19 per cent and
25 per cent for companies with profits between £50,000 and £250,000.
- Office for Budget Responsibility predicts
the UK will avoid recession in 2023, but the economy will shrink by 0.2 per
cent
- Growth of 1.8 per cent is predicted for the UK next
year, with 2.5 per cent in 2025 and 2.1 per cent in 2026
- UK's rate of inflation is predicted to fall to
2.9 per cent by the end of this year, from 10.7 per cent in the final quarter of
2022
