Osborne’s Budget for growth ignores countryside calls for help on fuel prices.

Country people’s pleas for help to over the impact of fuel prices were ignored by Chancellor George Osborne’s Budget today, said Tim Price, rural affairs spokesperson at leading rural insurer NFU Mutual.       

Analysing the Chancellor’s “Budget for Growth” speech, he said that cutting fuel excise duty by 1p a litre and dropping the planned 5p a litre excise increase did not go far enough to offset the impact of soaring fuel prices on farmers and rural communities.       

“While road fund tax on heavy goods vehicles has been frozen by the  Chancellor, nothing has been done to help the thousands of farmers who rely on 4 x 4s and light commercial vehicles to run their businesses,”   said Tim.       Turning to other measures announced by the Chancellor, Sean McCann, Personal finance specialist at NFU Mutual said there was good news for some farmers.

Good News For Some        

“Reducing corporation tax will certainly benefit farmers running their  businesses as companies – and in Northern Ireland the announcement of  consultation on  measures to align taxation rates  in the Irish Republic  are very good news for business.       

“Farmers selling enterprises may be able to benefit from the doubling of Entrepreneur’s Tax to £10m – potentially reducing farming family’s Capital Gains Tax bills by hundreds of thousands of pounds.  He also welcomed plans to consult on merging National Insurance and income tax collection.      

Looking at income tax, he welcomed the £1,000 increase in personal tax allowances. However, he warned that because the basic income tax rate threshold was being reduced, an extra 400,000 people were likely to be     forced into the higher rate tax bracket.         

“News that a ‘flat rate’ State pension - possibly of £140 a week - is being planned gives people more clarity about how much they will have to save themselves to provide a decent standard of living in retirement.      

 “An interesting development on Inheritance Tax which will be of value to the many farmers who  bequest money to charity, is the announcement that if you donate 10% or more of your estate to charity, the rest of your estate will benefit from a reduced rate of 36% rather than the 40% full rate of inheritance tax.       

“Overall, today’s “Budget for Growth” provided a number of positive measures for low and middle income earners and the measures to ease both     the tax and admin burden on small businesses will be a boost to farmers and the rural economy – but the Chancellor’s failure to address the hardship caused by fuel price hikes are a blow to the countryside.”