Published on 23 Jun 2010 • England, Wales |
"The budget is tough but not at the extreme end of tough. The real issue is the impact of public sector cuts on unemployment and the knock on effect on the economy... The housing recovery is very fragile and we have to keep it on track. It would have been nice to hear some mention of the importance of housing, affordable housing and housing numbers."
"There was nothing that stood out as particularly bad and there was some relief that the Lib Dems suggestion of putting VAT onto new build houses, hasn’t happened. We will be awaiting further separate announcements on schemes like Kickstart over the next few weeks."
"Cash strapped homeowners will be more likely to resort to 'cash-in-hand' traders in order to avoid adding 20 percent to the cost of keeping their home in good condition. This in turn will leave homeowners more vulnerable to being ripped off or having sub-standard work done on their home."
"For the construction industry this will have an impact on any business supplying VAT exempt and partially exempt businesses such as financial services companies, universities and residential landlords. These sectors cannot recover any VAT that they incur and so will resist price increases."