I wonder how long it took the marketing luvvies at Downing Street to come up with that uplifting Budget logo - 'Building Britain's Future.' To be fair It's not all that bad really - short, progressive and it involves masonry of some type. I'm just glad they didn't resurrect TB's 1997 campaign song,'Things Can Only Get Better ' otherwise Mrs Wilkin would have had an extra pair of pants to wash this week.
Alistair Darling's best attempt at good news in telling us that we would be basking in the warmth of 3.5% growth by 2011, was swiftly rubbished by those spoilsports from the opposition parties, the fiscal heavyweights Vince Cable of the Lib Dems, and Ken Clarke, who both hinted that the projections could have been the work of JK Rowling.
So what did the embattled Chancellor do for us in the business community? None of it was worthy of a headline, or even a page leader, but there were little snippets and a frisson of cheer:
- There is a temporary increase in First Year Capital Allowances from 20% to 40% for expenditure over and above the annual investment allowance on plant and machinery.
- HMRC's Business Payment Support Service is being expanded. Businesses may be able to use projected losses in 2009/2010 to offset against upcoming corporation and income tax bills.
- The VAT registration threshold is up to £68k.
But sadly none of this raised a smile when a BBC News 24 journalist spoke to a group of consumers and business owners in Derby. Not one of the hapless interviewees could find anything to be pleased about after all the Chancellor's best efforts.
Well I can. It seems to me that the new 50% tax on the grafters earning over £150k has caused a bit of a stir. So much so that many high earners, noticeably Sir Michael Caine and Peter Hargreaves, the co founder of Hargreaves Lansdown, Britain's biggest firm of financial advisers, are threatening to abandon our shores, presumably for Switzerland.
Now that in itself isn't good news - but just think of the possibilities. Cheer yourself up by making a list of the most irritating reality TV people, footballers and council officials and then hang on to the possibility of them leaving the country!
I feel better already. I think I'll go and scrap my car.
Stuart Wilkin writes for Insider
www.insidermedia.com
Has anybody else noticed that the busiest department in your company is the Human Resources team?
It’s coming to something when you haven’t been able to find anyone to review your personal development plan for the last six months. And now the three-week residential diversity course that you were so looking forward to has been cancelled.
The truth of it is, after spending years thinking of mind boggling ways to help you confuse your identity in a ‘right on’ style the BBC would be proud of, the lovely HR people are finally working their trolleys off.
That’s what happens in a recession. Everyone’s busy doing the things that really make a difference to make sure your business is still here in 2010. And, at last, HR has been welcomed to the inner circle.
If hiring and firing really was as easy and as much of a wheeze as Sir Alan Sugar makes it look – we’d all do it for ourselves. But shouting, ‘You’re fired’ at a gaggle of punchable wannabes whose egos appear to be as colossal as their collective talent is puny won’t qualify you as a Human Resources guru – shame though that is.
And no matter how small your business, you have to take it seriously. Screwing up on a piece of HR legislation is as big a risk to your business now as turning up on the first tee wearing bermuda shorts used to be.
But surely at times like these we can rely on the government to help small businesses by slowing the pace of HR legislation just for a while. What do you think?
Since the beginning of this month:
- Minimum paid holidays have increased to 5.6 weeks and must be correctly calculated for key workers (part-time staff to you and me).
- Parents with children under 16 can request flexible working patterns (previously 6).
- A brand new ACAS code of practice has replaced the previous grievance and discipline standards applicable to all businesses.
If you’re a big business you need to make sure that your HR team is on the ball. If you’re a small business you need to ask for help. Or subscribe to Personnel Today, study for a degree in contract law and buy a decade’s supply of coffee.
Let’s get through this without going bust, and remember – ‘The Apprentice’ isn’t real, it's only make-believe.
Stuart Wilkin writes for Insider.
www.insidermedia.com
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