This Spring Budget Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt announced he would increase the VAT registration threshold from £85,000 to £90,000 from 1 April for small businesses. He will also cut National Insurance contributions from 10% to 8% for employees.

Here is what NFFF president, Andrew Crook had to say about this change:

“Whilst we welcome the reduction in national insurance to help keep more money in consumers pockets but we feel this budget falls way short of what was needed for my industry and the whole of hospitality.”

“Very few hospitality businesses trade anywhere near the £85k threshold and raising it to £90k does nothing to help business who pay all of the tax pass on all of the VAT they collect and provide valuable jobs.”

“I do think this Government have run out of ideas and do not listen to what the sector says to them.”

The chancellor announces a fresh cut to National Insurance contributions for employees from 6 April.

Hunt says he will reduce the rate by a further 2p, worth around £450 a year for someone on an average salary.

Hunt lifts VAT threshold for small businesses

Jeremy Hunt has announced that he will help small businesses by providing £200m of funding to extend the Recovery Loans Scheme as it transitions to the Growth Guarantee Scheme.

And the chancellor announced he would increase the VAT registration threshold from £85,000 to £90,000 from 1 April – the first increase in seven years, which he claimed would lift tens of thousands of businesses out of paying VAT.

Hunt says UK has lowest national debt in the G7

Hunt speaks of the need bring down borrowing and to reduce the national debt.

He says that today’s forecasts show debt will fall to below to 94% by 2028 and 2029, down from over 100%.

He says that UK continues to have the lowest national debt in the G7, lower than Japan, France and the United States.

Hunt is sharing borrowing figures and says that public sector should hit below 3%, three years early.

He says that by the end of the forecast, debt should be at lowest level since 2001.

He hits out at Labour’s now dropped £28bn green pledge, saying none of this would be possible if Labour had stuck with their policy to decarbonise the grid by 2030.

Hunt says his policies mean ‘more jobs, more investment and lower taxes’

Hunt continues after that intervention.

He says that Labour’s plans destroy jobs and risk family finances.

His policies mean more jobs, more investment and lower taxes, he says.

When he came to office inflation was at 11%, he says, and the latest figures show that it is now at 4%.