AVA :Following two years of challenges and uncertainty as a result of Brexit and the pandemic, there was clear nervousness in the office as we tuned into Rishi Sunak’s Spring Statement. We welcome the support that the government has announced to support individuals and businesses within the UK.
With continued uncertainty over pricing, the announcement that fuel duty will be cut by 5p a litre will act as a small help to the vending sector – although prices have gone up by more than 20p a litre in the last month alone, as a consequence of events in Ukraine. The AVA operator member, who maintain fleets of vans, have been feeling this crisis. It has created further uncertainty for businesses still recovering from the hardships of the pandemic. For this reason, we welcome this announcement and hope that it can be of some relief for businesses.
Whilst the announcement that the National Insurance threshold will be raised by £3,000 is a positive step, a wholesale suspension of the increase would have been more impactful. With prices rising on all fronts – energy, raw materials, coffee and food for example – this is just another increase in costs. It comes on top of all the other proposed increases facing businesses, such as the Single Use Plastics Tax, Deposit Return Schemes, Extended Producer Responsibility – all of which will lead to the annual cost to industry increasing from £380 million to £3.8 billion.
The government is clearly sign-posting a greener future with the announcement of relief on energy saving measures, with 0% VAT on all energy saving materials. However, my initial question was ‘what about commercial heating cost savings?’ It is positive to see that some small steps have been taken to offset costs with the early introduction of business rate exemptions for installing lower energy equipment and systems – but this won’t offset the significantly higher fuel and energy charges AVA members are having to bear.
With the promise of a 50% discount in business rates up to £110,000 for retail hospitality and leisure sectors, we consider it to be vital that food service, catering & vending is overtly included in this step. When it was left to local authorities, our members had to fight every step of the way with little reward.
Overall, this spring statement highlights that there are tough times ahead, but we hope that these cuts and the support that was announced will act as some relief to AVA members who continue to navigate the ongoing industry challenges.
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