There was a collective sigh of relief when the Chancellor sat down on Wednesday after delivering her second budget. There had been a lot of rumours and counter briefing about possible tax rises and whilst there were a lot of announcements concerning changes to tax policy there were no significant changes that made people pause, as there had been in the Halloween special on 31 October last year.

 

It was widely reported before the budget by some commentators that the “kite flying” of potential changes to tax rates and policy in the lead up to the budget had impacted on confidence – both business and consumer. This was evidenced by a few surveys that showed that SME confidence in particular was trending down.

 

At the end of our budget briefings we asked whether people were more upbeat and confident about the future or whether there were still concerns. At two briefings in Grimsby and Lincoln over 100 people attended and took part in this temperature check of confidence.

 

“It’s fair to say that we were surprised at the results of our little survey which showed that feelings in Grimsby and Lincoln were really divided” commented Richard Hallsworth (Director at Nicholsons).

 

“In Grimsby 84% of people were feeling either not confident or unsure about the future where as in Lincoln spirits were higher with 49% feeling more confident than not about the future.”

 

“The results were a surprise and maybe an indication of the breadth of the announcements and their impact across a range of people” said Kate Brown (Tax Director at Nicholsons) who presented the tax update at the briefings.

 

“Regionally there are different priorities and these were tackled in different ways by the budget”

 

If you would like to know more about the budget please click here for our budget review. If you have any thoughts or concerns following the budget please reach out to us.