Member Article

Calls for Chancellor to extend investment allowance to boost SME spending

The director general of business body the CBI has called on the Chancellor to extend the the Annual Investment Allowance at £250k beyond its current deadline of January 2015.

John Cridland said the measure was necessary to help the UK keep pace with EU spending on plant and machinery within SMEs.

He called for the Government to provide a “leg-up” to businesses who want to invest and also called for a capital allowance for structures and buildings to encourage investment in critical areas like energy infrastructure, and a freeze on UK Air Passenger Duty (APD), which is the highest in the EU.

Mr Cridland said: “The economic recovery is taking hold with businesses and consumers both feeling more confident but we must make sure that it really takes root and this can only be done through rebalancing.

“There are encouraging signs that business investment and net trade are on the up and now is the perfect time for the Government to get full square behind it, particularly in the case of smaller firms.”

The CBI also the UK’s long-term energy investment needs must be balanced against the costs borne by businesses and households.

It called for a freeze in the Carbon Price Floor (CPF) from 2015/16; extension of the Energy-Intensive Industry Compensation Package (EII) and exemption of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) from CPF.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .