The CLA, which represents rural businesses, has set out concerns about the inflationary pressure of the new National Living Wage on employment costs and the lack of action to reduce the burden of tax on small unincorporated businesses.
CLA President Henry Robinson said: “As a result of this Budget farmers and other rural businesses are presented with significant inflation in their wage costs and the cut in corporation tax that is supposed to pay for it will not benefit them. We now need an urgent plan for how to ensure rural businesses are not left behind and jobs in rural communities are not put at risk.
“The Chancellor stated in the Budget that the new compulsory National Living Wage will be paid for by decreases in corporation tax. There are hundreds of thousands of family businesses in rural England and Wales that are unincorporated and therefore are taxed on higher tax rates.”
