Sean Keyes, Chief Executive of Sutcliffe has commented on the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget.
“It was always likely that the Government was going to try to improve their image with this budget and make an impact for next year’s general election. It appears that the reason they’re making these changes is politically driven and not by what the country needs.
“We will take any reduction in taxes as this is the highest tax burden in my working lifetime.
“I was disappointed not to see more about the Help to Buy ISA. Not only would this have helped first-time buyers, but it would have also benefited the construction sector as it would have encouraged people to save for a deposit which would have meant greater demand for more homes to be built. That said, I welcome the £40m investment in busting the housing development backlog and hope the Government sticks to its promise of being ‘a builder, not a blocker.’
“I also think increasing the National Living Wage is in fact a negative. While raising the National Living Wage in London may work, what it’ll do in the provinces is make employers think more closely about employing a young person, as it’d actually make more sense to employ somebody older with more experience for the same amount of money, making it even harder for young people to find their first employment – and that’s not what I want.
“What I’d prefer to see would be for the Government to put some actual funding into encouraging companies to upskill its young people, similar to the Kickstart programme, covering some of that initial cost associated with taking people out of unemployment and helping them into college and then the workplace.”
