Published on 23 Mar 2011 • England, Wales |
"Today's budget is about reforming the nation's economy so we have enduring growth and jobs for the future."
"Today's budget is about reforming the nation's economy so we have enduring growth and jobs for the future."
"A successful construction industry is vital for sustainable growth. Building and maintaining homes, commercial properties and economic and social infrastructure are activities that underpin the entire economy."
"New Enterprise zones are to be welcomed but are only helpful if you can borrow to invest and we are still not seeing a change."
"It is not clear how effective new enterprise zones will be in stimulating long term sustainable development beyond an initial boost. While the tax breaks and changes to planning restrictions may draw short term investment into an area they also have a number of downsides.
The total cost to Government can be expensive and there often needs to be other public investment in areas such as transport infrastructure."
"The Green Investment Bank is essential to plug the hole in low carbon investment and it is encouraging that this will be a proper bank, able to borrow. Sadly, the bank won’t be able to borrow from day one and it isn’t being used to finance the Green Deal, both of which are missed opportunities."
"This is most welcomed, but does not address the crisis in the second hand housing market, which is suffering hugely from an inability to sell houses and for families to move as their needs change."
"There was plenty to perk up the new build housing market with the Home Builders Federation getting what it wanted in a replacement for HomeBuy Direct."
"This scheme will offer first-time buyers on moderate incomes a much needed helping hand towards buying an affordable home and is a very welcome move."
"Whilst we control our use of shared equity schemes carefully, we do believe that they have a place given the current challenges in the mortgage market. This new government scheme will allow us to maximise our support to [first-time buyers] whilst focusing more of our capital on investment in new sites."
"This is impressive backing for a long-standing BPF campaign to have stamp duty on residential portfolio trades reformed. It will provide an important boost for the private rented sector and we hope will tip the balance in encouraging institutional funds into building homes."
"[This] will have a big impact on the large number of self employed people working in construction."
"Some businesses had been calling for this in order to cut down on paperwork. NI was established in 1911 to fund pensions, other welfare payments and later the NHS. But this 'contributory principle', the link between some benefits and NI payments, has weakened over the years. However, the political difficulty with it is that it could be perceived as a tax increase."
"There were some nice surprises in this budget. The announcement of a two-year forward programme of publicly funded infrastructure projects represents a huge victory for the industry, which has long campaigned for greater clarity over future opportunities."
"The approach to reforming the planning system is seeking to create jobs, promote sustainability to ensure that applications are successful and green belt is sustained. The Regional Growth Fund will...underpin this, helping make applications fundamentally viable (while house and land prices remain suppressed)."
"Today's budget is about reforming the nation's economy so we have enduring growth and jobs for the future."