TheBusinessDesk.com teams up with Grant Thornton for Budget Day
THEBUSINESSDESK.COM has teamed up with leading accountants Grant Thornton to provide the region’s best online coverage of the budget.
The regional business news website will be watching the Chancellor’s speech closely to see how he balances the need to reduce the deficit with the political realities of fighting a looming General Election.
West Midlands editor Marc Reeves said: “This is the first budget we’ve covered since launching TheBusinessDesk.com in this region, and it could hardly be more significant for the country. Whether the Chancellor bravely tackles the deficit head-on, or caves in to political pressure to put off the difficult decisions to another day is anybody’s guess. But we’ll be doing our best to help the businesses of the West Midlands understand the impact of Mr Darling’s words as soon as he sits down.
“We’re delighted therefore to be working in conjunction with our Budget coverage sponsors Grant Thornton, whose expert team is on hand to deliver their verdict on both the broad-brush and the nuances of the speech.”
Daniel Hartland, tax partner at Grant Thornton in Birmingham said: “All eyes will be focused on the Chancellor’s economic forecasts as he sets out Labour’s election campaign. But the economic recession has been much longer and deeper than he predicted only last year. Lower tax revenues from such a slow pace of recovery will mean that it will be even harder to halve the budget deficit over the next four years.
“With the election looming it is highly unlikely that the Chancellor will outline any significant changes in tax levels considering the changes set out in last year’s Budget. He may mention that the bankers’ profits windfall tax introduced in the PBR 2009 exceeded projections and provided a welcome boost to tax receipts.
“In order to halve the deficit over the next four years, departmental budget cuts will have to kick in quickly. This will be unwelcome news to the electorate, so it will be interesting to see how much detail the Chancellor goes into at this stage. I suspect he will just keep the electorate hanging on this one.”
TheBusinessDesk.com will run fully up-to-date stories on its website throughout the afternoon, with email alerts for the highlights. Tomorrow morning, a podcast panel discussion hosted by Grant Thornton will be available for download.
