The Budget: Live (From The Northern Echo)

2:31pm

1:35pm

David Hammal, PwC: Overall it was always going to be a difficult job given the economic situation.  Positives to take from it - lower corporation tax, help to the beleagured construction industry through the Help to Buy scheme and mortgage guarantees and a £2,000 exemption for all employers which will disporportionately help small businesses.

Time to read the details on the Treasury website to read the small print!

1:31pm

Paul Dixon, PwC: Well that's the end of the speech, the Chancellor summarises his proposals as a budget to help small businesses, hard pressed families, those aspiring to get on to the housing ladder and for businesses to take on additional employees.

His business proposals were underpinned with a promise to inject a further £15 billion into infrastructure expenditure over the next 5 years.

As ever the devil will be in the detail which will emerge over the next few days.

1:26pm

David Hammal, PwC: Cut in the so-called jobs tax - employer's national insurance.  All employers to have first £2,000 of employer's national insurance exempted.

1:26pm

Paul Dixon, PwC: The personal allowance increase to £10,000 will now take place from 2014/15 instead of being in place by the end of the this parliament.

1:23pm

Paul Dixon, PwC: The Chancellor confirms that the September fuel duty increase has been cancelled, meaning that the price of a litre of fuel is 13p cheaper than if the fuel duty escalator had remained unchanged.

1:22pm

David Hammal, PwC: Cheers, George!  Beer duty escalator scrapped completely.  Not for any other form of drink, though.

1:18pm

David Hammal, PwC: Significant help to new build homes - provided they are not worth more than £600k.  The Government will loan up to 20% of the value of a new  build provided you have a 5% deposit.  Interest free for the first five years and repaid when you sell the house.  Trying to help people buy new houses and encourage construction.  

1:15pm

Paul Dixon, PwC: The Chancellor confirms that social care costs to be capped at £72,000 from 2016.

1:12pm

Paul Dixon, PwC: The Chancellor announces a crackdown on tax avoidance including new information agreements with territories previously regarded as low tax jurisdictions.

1:10pm

Paul Dixon, PwC: The Chancellor announces that the reduction in the top margin of income tax from 50% to 45% will result in  increased tax revenues in absolute terms.

1:08pm

David Hammal, PwC: It has looked for a while that the Chancellor was aiming for a 20% corporation tax rate for all businesses - he has announced this will be achieved by 2015.  Not for the banks, though, as their levy will be increased.

1:07pm

Paul Dixon, PwC: The Chancellor announces a package of measures to reduce employee taxes including CGT breaks for sale of businesses to employees.

1:07pm

David Hammal, PwC: The Chancellor announces an increase in the 'above the line' R&D tax credit payments to 10% - enhancing these rebates to high tech businesses

1:03pm

David Hammal, PwC: New tax incentives for ultra-low emission vehicles - potentially good news for the region with Nissan's specialism in electric vehicles

1:02pm

Paul Dixon, PwC: The Chancellor endorses Michael Hesseltine's recommendations for Local Enterprise Partnerships. Full details are likely to be released in the June Spending Review.

1:00pm

David Hammal, PwC: Confirmation that the spending cuts are to fund £3bn per annum of additional infrastructure expenditure in 2015/16 and later.  Details to be given in June.

12:55pm

Paul Dixon, PwC: The Chancellor confirms that government departments underspent their 2012/13 budget by £11 billion.

Next year's departmental budgets will be cut by approximately 1% with the exception of education and health whose budgets are protected.

12:51pm

David Hammal, PwC

Technical changes to the remit of the Monetary Policy Committee.  In addition to the 2.0% inflation target, increased communication with the Chancellor and also issue longer term commitments to keep interest rates low during periods of low growth.  Mr Osborne anticipates this will help the stability of the economy and hence stimulate investment.

12:48pm

Paul Dixon, PwC: The Chancellor confirms that Britain will avoid a second quarter of negative growth so we will not fall back into recession.

12:44pm

Paul Dixon, Pwc: The Chancellor confirms that for every job lost in the public sector, six jobs are created in the private sector.

12:43pm

David Hammal, PwC: OBR forecasts falling deficit – 2012/13 - 7.4% of GDP, 2013/14 – 6.8% of GDP and 2014/15 – 5.9%.

12:43pm

Paul Dixon, Pwc: Chancellor confirms growth forecasts at 1.8% in 2014, 2.3% in 2015, 2.7% in 2016 and 2.8% in 2018.

Against a background of challenging circumstances posed by the Eurozone, the Chancellor painted an encouraging picture in respct of increased employment in the UK off the back of 0.6% growth this year.

12:38pm

David Hammal, PwC: Mr Osborne setting a bleak scene – global growth down, world trade flat and economic storms in the Eurozone.

12:34pm

Paul Dixon, PwC: Chancellor reaffirms his commitment to his original plans for reducing the deficit using monetary, fiscal and supply side reforms.

12:26pm

12:26pm

12:25pm

Paul Dixon PWC

Pre budget questions in the house show that the focus is clearly centred on the prospects for investment in infrastructure and training and the Chancellors proposals for stimulating growth in the economy.

12:13pm

Ian Gott, director of Gott Technical Services, the North East’s leading motor equipment supplier

Areas which Ian could provide comment on include:

• Energy & fuel – Gott Technical Services runs a fleet of vehicles so any hike in fuel costs will ultimately have an impact on their end users – garages and their customers.
• Skills support for engineering & manufacturing sectors – A co-ordinated effort locally and nationally to ensure support for skills is available to encourage growth in these sectors.

12:12pm

Rob Charlton, CEO of national design and technology business space architecture

Areas Rob would like to see addressed in the Budget include:

• Support for infrastructure projects – a very important commitment; Sir Howard Bernstein has suggested starting the new rail link in the North which makes sense.
• The role of the North East LEP, which appears to be having very little impact on what is happening on the ground. A lack of resources makes any intervention difficult.
• Perceived lack of entrepreneurship in the North East & reliance on the public sector – Rob feels there is a lack of innovation in the North. London is more open minded to new thinking, but how we overcome this is another matter.
• Skills support for engineering & manufacturing sectors – really important, however, there is too much talk and red tape – quangos simply slow the process. Give the funds direct access to the private sector and let them get on with it.

12:06pm

Kari Owers, Chief Executive of Newcastle-based PR agency OPR and North East woman entrepreneur of the year

Areas which Kari could provide comment on include:

• Perceived lack of entrepreneurship in the North East & reliance on the public sector – policies to be introduced to combat this, including encouraging young people to start up their own businesses

12:02pm

Ian Malcolm, MD of ElringKlinger (GB), Teesside-based automotive parts manufacturer

Areas Ian would like to see addressed in the Budget include:

• More support for manufacturing companies – to boost the sector, either for goods to export or to sell in the UK, thus reducing imports.
• Skills support for engineering & manufacturing sectors – a co-ordinated effort locally and nationally to ensure support for skills is available to encourage growth in these sectors.
• The role of the LEP – in ensuring the benefits of Enterprise Zones are open to SME’s as well as large multinational companies.
• Support for infrastructure projects – such as transportation to ensure Northern cities are well connected, easily accessible and well positioned to drive economic growth.

11:57am

11:54am

Paul Dixon PWC: Many people will be waiting to see if the Chancellor will release any more detail concerning the implementation of the recommendations of the Heseltine report into the devolving of economic powers to the regions.

This could have a significant impact on transport,housing and training decisions.

It may be that we will have to wait until the Spending Review in June  for the main details.

How much will be made available to implement these proposals?

Optimists will hope this will be close to the £49 billion identified in  Lord Heseltine's report.

11:45am

David Hammal, PwC:  The Chancellor has entered the Twittersphere this morning saying that he will “tackle the economy's problems head on" when he outlines his fourth Budget, which he says will help "those who want to work hard and get on".  Fighting words indeed!

11:40am

David Hammal, PwC: Well, the time for speculation is almost over, but with the press briefings, what do we know already? 

Yesterday most Ministers were told to cut an additional 2% from their departmental budgets over the next two years – with the savings to be allocated to capital infrastructure spending. 

The changes to childcare support have also been pre-announced, although these will not have any impact on people and their disposable incomes until 2015. 

Finally, Danny Alexander has announced that a loophole which apparently allows UK employers to avoid UK tax and National Insurance from payments to UK employees is to be shut – boosting the Treasury’s coffers by an estimated £100 million per year.

11:36am

11:36am

11:35am

11:22am

4:17pm

Paul Dixon: The Chancellor faces a significant challenge in tomorrows budget.We will be commenting live on his proposals to tackle the economic problems facing the UK.

4:10pm

David Hammal: Looking forward to the Chancellor's latest attempts to balance the books and stimulate the economy.

3:11pm

Follow the Budget live from 12.30pm tomorrow with live analysis from PwC tax experts, Paul Dixon and David Hammal.