National Insurance cut will ‘boost small businesses’, says CLA

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) logo

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) said today (20 March 2013) the Chancellor has given a major boost to small businesses in the North by cutting employers’ National Insurance in his Budget.

CLA Regional Director Dorothy Fairburn said George Osborne’s decision to give every UK company an allowance of £2,000 against its Employer’s National Insurance (NI) bill from April 2014 will particularly help smaller firms.

Miss Fairburn said: “Many of our members are running small or medium-sized firms in the countryside and this measure - described by Mr Osborne as the Budget’s largest tax cut - could prove a big boost to the rural economy.

“Clearly, it will help smaller companies much more than big corporations.”

The CLA Regional Director welcomed the Chancellor’s cancellation of the fuel duty rise scheduled for September.

She said: “People in the countryside are more reliant on their vehicles than city dwellers, so the fuel duty rise would have been a bitter blow for rural communities. It is great it has been scrapped.”

The CLA welcomed the Chancellor’s Help to Buy package which is set to boost much-needed housing supply.

She said: “This will help alleviate the housing shortage and allowed stalled projects to move forward.”

On planning, Miss Fairburn said it was good the Chancellor had signalled that the Government will launch a consultation on change of use of “certain agricultural buildings” to homes.

“This potentially is great news for rural communities, providing much-needed homes for people wanting to live and work in the countryside as well as turning disused farm buildings into something useful,” she added.