“The UK economy has long been constrained by a lack of investment in infrastructure, which has negatively impacted both businesses and communities. While the Prime Minister’s initial plans for increased house building and investment in unlocking brownfield sites is encouraging, – especially the 2,000 new affordable homes based on Liverpool docks – it is crucial that the Chancellor remains focused on delivering the right infrastructure projects to accelerate economic growth, as shown by the announced £5bn affordable homes programme. This is comforting for the housing sector, as it looks likely we are going to come close to achieving the 1.5m target. However, for the private sector to engage and invest in this government’s plans, then it must first understand the barriers that exist and work to mitigate them effectively.
The array of tax-raising changes in today’s budget is somewhat worrying considering our tax burden already sits amongst one of the highest. For the business sector to participate and fund this government’s initiatives, it must be certain that the new, higher taxes will be used appropriately. Developers will also be impacted by the collective 24% increase in capital gains tax included in today’s announcement. Developers are less inclined to take on new projects or extend current ones when profit margins are constrained; though there’s no doubt that the government has shown a welcome desire in the months since the election to lift the major constraints on not only house building and achieving its 1.5m target by investing £5bn to deliver this programme, but other major infrastructure projects that could accelerate economic growth in alignment with today’s budget.”
