Autumn Statement 2011: What businesses want

Chancellor George Osborne will deliver his Autumn Statement to the House of Commons on Tuesday and is expected to unveil a number of economic measures to kickstart the economy. 

Ahead of the statement, a number of business groups and entrepreneurs have outlined what they would like to see included in the speech. Here's a round-up:

The Federation of Small Businesses called on the government to: 

• Introduce a true fuel duty stabiliser which will trigger an actual reduction in the pump price, as the FSB believes that the fair fuel stabiliser announced in the 2011 Budget does not go far enough, and the sheer volatility in price of fuel at the pumps means that businesses cannot plan overheads properly 
• Create a National Insurance Contributions (NICs) holiday targeted at young people taken on by small firms, as a step towards a wider NICs holiday for micro businesses.  
• Continue on its better regulation agenda to create a regulatory culture which supports business and growth, especially looking at regulation which comes from Europe which will further discourage firms from taking on staff and look to remove some burdensome employment regulations 
• Look closely at the proposals from the Office of Tax Simplification to simplify the tax regime for the smallest of businesses, as complying with the tax system is one of the biggest burdens for this sector
• Reform the government's approach to procurement to give small firms better access to the £240bn pot spent by the public sector – currently only 6.5% of central government spend goes to small and medium-sized businesses, far from its 25% aspiration.  Even increasing public sector spend with small businesses by just one per cent would target an additional £2.4bn towards those firms.
• Act upon the Independent Commission on Banking recommendations to increase competition in all sectors of the banking market, and also looks at ways of promoting alternative and innovative methods of credit to small companies looking to grow.

The Forum of Private Business called for: 

• A greater business voice in how skills money is spent – employers are eager for either a voucher scheme for skills training or NI reductions for apprentices.
• To ensure the Regional Growth Fund delivers funds on a much quicker basis by relaxing requirements on due diligence for low value bids, while continuing to support and clarify the role of LEPs.
• Business rates frozen in April.
• Postpone all fuel duty increases scheduled for next year. 
• Further tax breaks for private lenders, as well as equity investors, which would ease credit conditions for small firms.
• Do more to increase confidence in alternative sources of finance for low turnover businesses, and introduce tax incentives for alternate lenders.

The Confederation of British Industry’s major priority for "Plan A plus" is to make the decisions required to attract £200 billion of vital private sector investment into our infrastructure in the next five years.

On infrastructure, the CBI proposed:

• Two road-tolling projects financed by the private sector- widening the A14 from Rugby to Felixstowe and improving the A1 in the North East.
• Bringing ten publicly-funded road projects forward within the existing spending programme to get shovels in the ground and ease congestion in transport networks. These include projects on the M25, M1 and M60.
• Re-instating a further 14 major road projects delayed in the 2010 spending review to fill the gap created in the pipeline from 2013.
• Making infrastructure investment decisions more attractive by taking actions which do not add to the public purse. 
• Preventing the exodus of the UK's energy-intensive industries by giving a rebate to users on the carbon floor price. 
• Stimulating the housing market by underwriting mortgage indemnity guarantees, reducing the risk of higher loan-to-value mortgages to buyers and lenders. 
• Targeting measures on tackling youth unemployment, including a Young Britain Credit worth £1500 for firms taking on an unemployed person aged between 16 and 24 years, which would cover the first year's National Insurance for employers. 

The CBI also called for:

• Introduction of capital allowances for infrastructure investment
• The improvement of access to finance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs),with a mid-cap bond market as part of the chancellor's credit-easing plans, to try to increase the flow of credit to medium-sized businesses
• Enhancement of the climate for investment in research and development (R&D), by extending the R&D tax credit to all non-profitable companies, and allowing them to factor the credit into R&D investment independent of their position in the business life cycle. 

The CBI has also submitted proposals to the government's growth review:

• Education and skills - ensuring all young people leave education equipped to develop their full potential, requiring all schools to offer triple science GCSE, more effective co-ordination of business involvement in schools, help for SMEs to offer work experience, support for business relevant skills in higher education, ending age-dependent funding for apprenticeships and supporting further involvement by SMEs.
• Logistics - helping a vital component of our economy, and an important growth sector with a current annual turnover of £86bn, maximising use of existing infrastructure with longer and higher vehicles and more night-time operations, encouraging local authorities to consider logistics as part of major planning consents, and helping the sector to develop new technologies and processes.
• Rural economy - raising the productivity of the rural economy, which had an output of £145bn in 2007, to approach or match that achieved in an urban setting, recognising and supporting agricultural innovation, boosting internet roll-out to rural areas, abolishing the Agricultural Wages Board and the Agricultural Minimum Wage.

The ICAEW requested that the government:

• Extend the moratorium on new domestic regulations for microbusinesses, lasting until 2014, to SMEs and larger companies where possible
• Raise the rate of income tax relief on the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) up to the marginal rate, as well as maintaining tax credit
• Reduce the 20% rate of VAT on general repairs and refurbishment of dwellings to 5% for two years. This will help job creation and increase housing supply
• Favour companies that export through schemes such as the Regional Growth Fund, especially when doing business in non-EU and rapidly growing markets
• Extend the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme (EFG)
• Ask HM Treasury to acknowledge the cost of poor service standards from HMRC to small businesses and ensure that HMRC has adequate resource to deliver on its responsibilities

The EEF called for: 

• Rebalancing our economy towards a greater reliance on growth from innovation, investment and trade. Manufacturers, who invest and trade heavily relative to the overall economy, will be at the heart of this rebalancing.
• A much more tightly focused policy reform agenda.  The outcome of the Growth Review will only bolster private sector growth if it is centred around a systematic attack on the factors that holding UK back from stronger, sustained and balanced growth.  
• Targeted, time-limited support for investment that would have a short term fiscal cost – but over time will be fiscally neutral and therefore consistent with our support for fiscal credibility over the medium term.  

The British Chambers of Commerce called for: 

• Immediate and real action on existing pledges to reduce regulation
• The Bank of England should instigate a further round of quantitative easing
• Re-prioritisation within the existing spending envelope to promote investment and exports
• If economic growth worsens, a major reprioritisation of spending will be necessary
• Additional accelerated infrastructure spending based on a National Infrastructure Plan

What would you like to see included in the 2011 Autumn Statement? Post your comments below.

BusinessZone.co.uk will be providing live and interactive coverage of the speech from 12.30pm on 29 November.