Autumn Budget 2021 reaction: Chancellor fails to 'keep wolf from the door' - FSB

Scottish small businesses struggling to balance the books didn’t hear much from the Chancellor that will keep the wolf from the door.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak leaving 11 Downing Street, London before delivering his Budget to the House of Commons. Picture: Jacob King/PA Wire

With mounting energy bills, planned payroll tax hikes and chronic supply chain problems, these firms wanted the UK government to cut them slack. Instead, the Chancellor outlined a bold vision for a new economy but didn’t address many of the problems of the here and now.

While a freeze to fuel duty will be welcomed, especially for the courier or tradesperson dependent on their vehicle, it is the rising price of energy which is shocking the small business community.

Local and independent firms neither have the protections of consumers or the negotiating power of big business in the energy market. Rebalancing the economy means treating smaller firms fairly too, and the Chancellor missed a trick by not giving businesses the tools to mount a fightback.

The Chancellor spoke eloquently about the need to manage government debt. What wasn’t acknowledged was the debt mountain that small businesses, in Scotland and elsewhere, now need to climb.

Firms north of the Border borrowed more than £4 billion from government-backed emergency loan schemes over the course of the last two years. Small and medium sized firms are lumbered with a disproportionate share.

That’s why we wanted the Chancellor to outline means to keep these businesses’ overheads low – or at least under control – so that they can pay back their debt, boost workers’ wages and help to power the recovery in every corner of the country.

With the worst announcement behind them – the rise in National Insurance contributions to be introduced in April – the Chancellor’s statement outlined a range of tax tweaks and relief rejigs.

New business rate policies for England might help provide inspiration and capital for Holyrood in the next financial year.

The Chancellor must remember that, just because the bulk of the public health restrictions have been lifted, it doesn’t mean that the real economy is fighting fit. And it would be a tragedy if good businesses that survived the lockdown failed in the recovery because of circumstances way beyond their control.

- Andrew McRae is Scotland policy chair for the Federation of Small Businesses

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