Small- and medium-sized businesses have welcomed government plans to ease lending in a bid to boost their cash flow, but expressed disappointment at the small drop in VAT rates following Alistair Darling’s Pre Budget Report.
Darling pledged to cut VAT from 17.5% to 15% for a year, starting in December, in the hope that it will encourage consumers to spend.
But the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), which represents construction SMEs, said it was not enough.
FMB director general Richard Dement warned that the 2.5% cut was “unlikely” to have an effect. “If the government was serious about kick starting the building industry he would have reduced VAT to 5% on all repair and maintenance work.”
Small- and medium-sized businesses have welcomed government plans to ease lending in a bid to boost their cash flow, but expressed disappointment at the small drop in VAT rates following Alistair Darling’s Pre Budget Report.
Darling pledged to cut VAT from 17.5% to 15% for a year, starting in December, in the hope that it will encourage consumers to spend.
But the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), which represents construction SMEs, said it was not enough.
FMB director general Richard Dement warned that the 2.5% cut was “unlikely” to have an effect. “If the government was serious about kick starting the building industry he would have reduced VAT to 5% on all repair and maintenance work.”
*source-Contract Journal – UK
