Budget 2013 – A BRIEF SUMMARY
Individuals
- The personal allowance will be increased to £10,000 from April 2014
- The planned 3p litre increase in fuel duty for September was scrapped
- Tax-free childcare vouchers which will allow 20 per cent off the first £6,000 of childcare costs for each child
- The annual escalator rise in beer duty has been scrapped, and the price of beer has been cut by 1p
- The Help to Buy scheme will offer an equity loan worth up to 20 per cent of the value of a new build home - to anyone looking to move up the housing ladder
- The government will offer guarantees for £130bn worth of mortgages, available from the start of 2014 for three years
- The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme will be extended and the Employee Ownership scheme will be made more generous
Business and Economy
- The main rate of Corporation tax is to be cut to 20 per cent by 2015 meaning that the UK will have a single rate of Corporation Tax
- Small and medium sized enterprises will receive a National Insurance break of £2,000 per employer from April 2014
Infrastructure and investment
- Public spending on Infrastructure plans will be boosted by £3bn a year from 2015-16, amounting to £15bn of extra capital spending over the next decade
- The Government is committing over £1.6bn during the next ten years to its’ Industrial Strategy. This includes £500m for sectors where the UK has a comparative global advantage, including agricultural technology.
NFU comment
Announcements in the Budget to cut national insurance bills and scrap fuel duty will go some way in helping farm businesses deal with spiralling costs. However we are disappointed that there was little to provide farmers and growers with the confidence they need to invest in their businesses. Last year’s Autumn Statement contained the welcome announcement on the Annual Investment Allowance. This is already encouraging plant and machinery expenditure in agriculture, but we're still lacking equivalent measures to trigger capital investment.