Cumbria Chamber responds to Autumn Statement

Commenting on the Autumn Statement, Suzanne Caldwell, Managing Director of Cumbria Chamber of Commerce said:

“The Chancellor faced difficult decisions in putting together the Autumn Statement, worsened by the turmoil caused by the Mini Budget. There were some positives in what was announced, not least in terms of stability and a return to working with the OBR.

The Chancellor stayed true to his word in focusing on financial stability and targeting support for the most vulnerable in society. That said, there are many who fall outside this group who will find times immensely challenging. This will in turn impact negatively on businesses, and in the teeth of a recession, this statement will not increase business confidence. There are also crucial details yet to emerge in the planned reviews on some key topics.

While we welcome the commitment to invest in energy, infrastructure and innovation, this doesn’t feel like a coordinated plan for growth, which is badly needed. And there are some real concerns for Cumbria.

We welcome the announcement on Sizewell C, which has already been too long delayed, in particular because we, and partners, are already working with Sizewell C to bring direct benefits to businesses in Cumbria through supply chain activity.

It’s concerning that there did not appear to be commitment to support further energy projects and innovation, across the range of renewables. These are fundamental if we are to achieve national energy security and address eco-challenges.

We’re keen to see more detail on the energy consumption measures the Chancellor referred to. It’s good news to hear that there are plans to improve energy efficiency across the economy, but we need to see greater urgency as businesses battle with their bills here and now.

Further announcements on energy support for businesses were always going to April, so it wasn’t a surprise not to hear more in the Statement. We’re continuing to work with other Chambers nationally to lobby on that further support. However unless there’s a huge shift in Government thinking that support will be targeted at specific sectors so many businesses are expected to struggle significantly next year, if they survive that long.

Almost half of businesses nationally tell us they will find it difficult to pay their energy bills once the Government’s Energy Bill Relief Scheme ends on 31 March 2023. And many are struggling even with the scheme in place.

While investment in infrastructure is in general positive, the announcements do give rise to concerns about us here in Cumbria as the headline project listed were focussed elsewhere.

And it’s a concern that the focus on planned Investment Zones appears to have moved to zones around research universities in left behind areas. There were some great plans submitted for Investment Zones around the county and it will be hugely disappointing, and a lost opportunity, if none of these can progress.

It’s also concerning for Cumbria moving forward that there appears to be an increasing focus on new Mayoral Combined Authorities and devolution deals. Cumbria is behind the curve on this and missing out because of that.

While continuing Levelling Up funding, I believe at the same level, is on the face of it positive, projects are already under pressure because of spiralling inflation, impacting on the current round, so new projects coming forward will face similar cost pressures.

While it was good to see the VAT threshold maintained to March 2026, there are many businesses who would welcome, and benefit from, cuts in the VAT rate so it was disappointing not to see any movement on this, allowing, for example, hospitality businesses to reduce their prices to consumers.

There was some reference to innovation, but the Chancellor’s Statement is light on green innovation, doesn’t address current labour shortages and has nothing on boosting export led growth.

While the review aimed at bringing more economically inactive people on benefits into the workforce is a positive step that alone is not enough to solve our acute staffing crisis and it was disappointing not to see moves to enable more people to come into Britain to work, for example through changes to the Shortage Occupation List.

A robust education system is important to businesses so it was good to see support for schools, although we appreciate, they will still have significant funding challenges. But it was immensely disappointing, and concerning, to see the colleges and the wider FE sector missing in any announcements. An appropriately funded sector offering the technical skills businesses need is absolutely fundamental to business.

There were some positives in, for example, freezing Employers’ National Insurance and increasing windfall taxes on energy companies. But these measures could have gone further. And there was scope in areas such as taxation of NonDoms and addressing tax breaks for private equity managers. Not addressing these, and at the same time continuing with the removal of the cap on bankers’ bonuses, seems wrong while ordinary households and businesses continue to face an extended period of significant financial challenges, and often hardship

The Government must do more to improve conditions for businesses to invest and grow, otherwise we will be starting from a weak base to power our recovery once global economic conditions stabilise.”