Chamber draws up a Budget wish list

WEST Midlands business leaders say the Chancellor must act in his Budget on March 21 to address the key priorities of apprenticeships, planning reform, high speed rail, finance and red tape and aviation.

Following consultation with its members and with the involvement of professional financial partner PricewaterhouseCoopers, Birmingham Chamber of Commerce Group, (BCCG) has set out a series of proposals concerning these issues which represent the strong view of its members.

President Mike Ward said: “We are urging the Chancellor to take these proposals seriously for the benefit of the UK economy and the growth urgently needed to get the country working and producing again.

“On apprenticeships, despite the initiatives announced recently, the cost and bureaucracy associated with recruiting and training apprentices is still perceived to be too onerous and expensive. Businesses want higher financial incentives in order to bear a greater part of the initial risk of recruitment especially where recruitment is helping those with no or very low skills levels or from the long-term unemployed register.”

Elsewhere, the Chamber’s wish list includes simplifying legislation on green belt protection and speeding up planning processes to implement regeneration and house building projects. 

The Chamber is also asking the Government to expedite the process to ensure construction of the High Speed 2 railway link between Birmingham and London can start as soon as possible, to reduce the income tax rate, to simplify the tax credit system, to increase stamp duty thresholds and, in order to facilitate entrepreneurship, to raise the threshold for VAT registration to £100k.