Budget 2013: News and reaction (From Burnham and Highbridge Weekly News)

3:36pm

PAUL Aplin, of Taunton chartered accountants AC Mole, (above) has given this response to the Chancellor's Budget:

"The Chancellor joined Twitter this morning, saying that he would present a Budget to help those who want to work hard and get on.

"The increase in the personal allowance to £10,000 from 2014 means that many more people will be taken out of the tax net altogether and that has to be good news.

"There will also be more help for people starting out on the housing ladder. Stimulating the housing market, especially new building, is as important for getting the economy moving as it is for getting people into their first homes.

"The economy remains fragile and the Chancellor will still be borrowing to fund the gap between tax revenues and government spending for at least another five years (and that is before he can even think about starting to repay the mountain of debt the UK has now amassed).

"His only real hope is to boost the economy and that means encouraging business and enterprise.

"Large companies will be pleased with the announcement that corporation tax is to be cut to 20% from April 2015 but the rate of tax small companies pay remains unchanged at 20%.

"Small businesses will however welcome the reduction in employers’ national insurance, which will take 450,000 businesses out of the charge altogether.

"They will also be pleased with the fuel duty freeze if they have high transport costs.

"And the announcement that small businesses with fewer than 50 employees will not have to report their PAYE information weekly or even daily as had been feared under the new Real Time Information rules – at least until October - will have come as a huge relief.

"So did the Chancellor succeed in his “tweeted” objective? Given the limited room he had for manoeuvre, he did more for business than I might have expected."

9:42am