The food industry’s response to Autumn Budget

Sustain has already responded to what the budget means to those in food poverty. Here are responses from the wider food industry.

 

Food and Drink Federation (FDF) response to Autumn Budget

Ian Wright CBE, FDF Chief Executive said:

“Food and drink manufacturers – 97% of whom are SMEs - will welcome the Chancellor's announcements today on productivity, exports, infrastructure, enterprise, business rates, investment and entrepreneurs.

“FDF is particularly pleased to see our representations on the way the Apprenticeship Levy operates have been listened to and acted upon.

“While we are committed to reducing packaging waste and working with Government, today's new tax on plastic packaging will result in significantly increased costs for UK food and drink manufacturers, due to the input costs required to produce food-grade recycled packaging.

“However the shadow of Brexit, and in particular a 'no-deal' Brexit, hangs over the food and drink industry and gets darker every day. While that remains the case, it is hard to see how we can long continue with business - or politics - as usual.”

 

National Farmers’ Union

NFU chief economic adviser Gail Soutar said: “The Chancellor has announced that the Defra day-to-day operating budget will be cut by 15% and we must wait for more details before understanding the full impact of this on farmers. It is reassuring that the flood defence budget will be ring-fenced and that the Government will prioritise spending on animal and plant disease prevention, for example by continuing to invest in implementing its 25-year strategy to eradicate bovine tuberculosis.

“The Chancellor also said he would invest £12bn in capital infrastructure and a boost to the Government’s digital service. As part of this, he said he was introducing a digital tax account by 2020 to replace tax returns, including new reporting requirements, and a consultation on tax payment dates. We will be following this closely to assess its feasibility for our members. We are disappointed that there was no mention of how farmers, many of whom are among the 5% who struggle with broadband access, will benefit from improved broadband facilities. It is absolutely vital that broadband services in this country are fit for purpose. We need a firm commitment from Government to deliver superfast broadband for all – what we don’t need is an increased divide between urban and rural communities

“We are pleased that the Chancellor said that tax credits would not be cut from next April, as previously planned as this will help many farming families who are experiencing falling incomes.

“It is disappointing that the Government has decided to end the micro employer relaxation of PAYE ‘on or before’ reporting from April 2016. This will impose a significant additional burden on many agricultural businesses engaging seasonal workers at harvest time. Larger employers will, however, be concerned at the rate of the new Apprenticeship Levy of 0.5% of payroll costs from April 2017.”

 

British Retail Consortium (BRC)

Helen Dickinson OBE, Chief Executive of the BRC, said:

“The Government has missed a much-needed opportunity to help the retail industry. While we welcome measures to assist smaller retailers, the majority of the UK's 3.1 million retail workers are employed in businesses that will not benefit from today’s business rates announcement.

"If the Government is to truly back business, it must engage in more extensive business rates reform to help all retailers and their employees through this period of transformation.”

On taxing plastic packaging:

“The UK retail industry is leading the way in protecting the environment by reducing single-use plastic and retailers will welcome the support to make this happen.

“Retailers recognise how important it is to their customers to tackle plastic pollution, removing it where possible and ensuring all packaging is recyclable. For this tax to make the difference that everyone wants to see, it is essential that the revenue raised is put back into recycling innovation rather than being locked away by the Treasury. Furthermore, Government must work with businesses to ensure the recycled plastic and recycling infrastructure is made available to support efforts to tackle plastic pollution. That is why retailers want to see reform of the recycling system. We need a producer responsibility system that incentives best practice - one that rewards retailers who use packaging that is easily recycled and penalises those that don’t change.”