Announcement Should Prioritise Certainty And Economic Confidence

Lawyers at Irwin Mitchell are calling on the Chancellor of the Exchequer to deliver a Budget on 22 November 2017 which provides certainty and confidence for businesses across the UK.

In what is Philip Hammond’s first Budget since the General Election in June, the Chancellor is under pressure to help boost a slow-growing economy at a time of considerable uncertainty ahead of the UK’s departure from the EU in 2019.

According to business lawyers at national firm, Irwin Mitchell, the priorities for the Chancellor should include:

• Kick-starting the Government’s Industrial Strategy which was launched at the beginning of the year to ensure the UK grows its economy and boosts productivity
• Providing significant fiscal encouragement to increase the level of investment in R&D for and implementation of ‘Industry 4.0’ technologies.  This should include targeted tax reliefs for innovation to make Britain even more attractive to tech pioneers
• Delivering more investment to encourage tech apprenticeships
• Providing more funding for digital infrastructure including faster broadband services
• Showing greater commitment to the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ and ‘Midlands Engine’ initiatives, particularly through significant investment in new transport infrastructure
• Increasing spending on regional aid funds to enable a softening of the Brexit impact in localities which will be hit hardest. This can be done now in some less prosperous regions without breaching EU State Aid rules.

Vicky Brackett, CEO of Irwin Mitchell’s Business Legal Services division, said: 

Expert Opinion

“The Chancellor has a real opportunity to inject some much needed certainty and confidence into what is a subdued UK economy.

“For a start, the Government needs to put much more meat on the bone with regards to its industrial strategy and provide some clarity in terms of what it wants to achieve and by when. Since the consultation closed in April this year, we have heard little in terms of what will happen next.

“Two of our own recent studies highlighted a number of issues that the Government needs to deal with. Our UK Powerhouse report revealed that the economic growth within our Northern cities continues to fall behind that of cities in the South East. This must be dealt with and a close eye must be kept on what the regional impact of Brexit will be.

“Our study into Industry 4.0 highlighted the huge opportunities of technologies including autonomous robots, 3D printing and augmented reality. It also revealed an unwillingness to invest amongst UK manufacturing companies despite an acceptance that it would boost productivity. The Chancellor has the power of offer fiscal encouragement for Industry 4.0 and we want to hear that the Government is supportive and committed to boosting growth in this area.”
Victoria Brackett - Group Chief Commercial Officer

Read our latest UK Powerhouse report.

Read our Industry 4.0 study.