Local businesses in Suffolk say the government need to prioritise them to grow the economy

The budget is two days away with business owners eager to see what has been said

People shopping in Ipswich High Street Suffolk
Author: Jasmine OakPublished 28th Oct 2024

Local business owners in Suffolk are worried that they will be forgotten about in the upcoming budget.

The announcement is only two days away and business are eager to see if the Labour government will be keeping their promise to restore economic stability with tough new spending rules, allow businesses to plan, with a cap on corporation tax at 25%.

Kie Humphries is the company director of Coffee Cat and Fruits of the Caterer.

We asked him what issues are worrying him that could be in the budget. He told us seeing increases in National Insurance contributions and pension contributions for employers will impact his bottom line.

"That also affects what we can do wage growth wise whether there's going to be economies that we make on the back of that just to balance the books."

He also doesn't want to see any increase on taxes on working people.

"A lot of us are all self-employed and it seems that we've been left out of that...They're defining a working person as not being self-employed and forgetting all of those people who run businesses."

Alongside changes that will directly impact his business Kie is also worried about changes that indirectly affect him.

"The fuel duty, that's that's going to affect us as well. A lot of our goods are delivered by truck. They're going to look to balance their books. So we could see even more increases in terms of the yearly cost of products that we sell."

Because the upcoming changes are unknown Kie has put growing his business on hold.

"At the moment I've got the opportunity to grow a business and I'm not gonna do that because of the staff costs.

"I'm turning away business essentially on the catering front. So that's one big factor."

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