Sean Farnell, Partner from Burgis & Bullock, said: “Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Autumn Budget was filled with announcements that had either already been made or we had already found out through the media over the last week.
“We already knew about the rise in Corporation Tax and National Insurance. Surprisingly, this was another Budget that has passed without significant changes to Capital Gains tax.
“The change to business rates was one announcement we didn’t expect, and the rates being halved for the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors is good news that will help businesses enormously and is absolutely needed for those sectors.
“The investment relief for green technologies is extremely welcome as many businesses would have struggled to hit the net zero target without the technology being more affordable.
“Confirmation of the continued support for research and development is good news – opening it out to cloud computing and data costs will help many of the technology businesses we work with.
“While the extension of the £1 million annual investment allowance to March 2023 is good news on the face of it, in reality there aren’t many businesses that spend £1 million per year and the impact of this might not be that significant.
“The increase in the living wage is great news for individuals but it could have big implications for smaller businesses. The burden will fall on businesses to fund this increase and that will have a knock-on effect on prices and inflation.
“As always with the Budget, the devil is in the detail, and we will be drilling down into the finer points of the announcements over the coming days to decipher what will have a tangible impact on the businesses we work with.”