Wasn’t expecting that, usually the chancellor is looking for ways to put his hand in our pocket, but this is the first time I can remember him giving so much to our industry.
Over the last few months here at Lenmark, we have been investing heavily in new plant & equipment, but I had not read anything in the press or on the internet about the ‘New Super deduction’ scheme that will start from next month, I will need to see the details but on the face of it Rishi is going to reduce our taxable profits by 130% for every £100 spent on new plant & machinery, there’s no good reason now to see any clapped out old Hymacs or Poclains on sites anywhere.
In the future it would be great if the chancellor would also extend the ‘Super Deduction’ to include commercial building, this would generate work for us all, but could also help meet the net-zero green target.
The housebuilders must be rubbing their hands with glee as well at the moment, with the news of a new mortgage guarantee scheme to enable all homebuyers to secure a mortgage up to £600k with just a 5% down payment, the share price of the top 10 housebuilders shot up on average by 5% on the news, but it’s probably an even bigger shot in the arm for the smaller local developers.
This new scheme could cause the market to overheat though, at present it’s a problem for every decent contractor to find experienced capable operatives & this scheme could make it a lot harder & put pressure on wage inflation.
Also announced was the ability to carry back loses for three years against earlier profits, this will surely help the cashflow of many companies, one thing that I would have liked the chancellor to have introduced was the ending of the CITB levy, what a waste of time that is, it doesn’t do what it was intended to do & has now become a laughing stock, but one we have to pay for!
So overall I think we done rather well from this budget, I know we still have Covid 19 lurking in the background, but I think the glass is more than half full, in fact, on that note I’m off for a little tipple myself to celebrate.