Suffolk bosses seek stability and confidence from Budget

Long before the starting gun is fired - and ahead of Budget Day tomorrow - this General Election year is already reaching fever pitch. Change and instability make businesses nervous - and volatility is in the air.

If the polls and pundits are to be believed, the Tories will be booted out when election day finally arrives - and no amount of budgetary elan from Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt is likely to change that. 

So as more than 100 company chiefs gathered on February 29 at Suffolk's most inspiring workplace building to meet the woman many believe is his likely successor, they were curious to discover just what she was like.

Rachel Reeves dropped in at Norman Foster's striking Willis building in Ipswich to support Jack Abbott - the party's contender for the town's key marginal seat. If polls are anything to go by, he has a good chance of de-seating Conservative MP Tom Hunt.

The Labour shadow chancellor's chosen audience as she swept through the town and the region - also stopping in at Lowestoft and Norwich - was the business community - her message that to be pro-worker, you need to be pro-business.

Her fiscal iron-discipline reputation came before her. Labour wouldn't tinker with Corporation Tax, she assured them. Stability and fiscal rules were her watchwords.

The tone was brisk and business-like - her audience cool and polite. "We can only achieve anything if we get our country growing again," she said. "Growth is our number one ambition."

Ipswich has fond memories for her. It was here as a young teenager she triumphed at the girls' under -14s British Chess Championship, she told the gathering.

Her host - PLMR Genesis's chief executive Kevin Craig - was delighted at her appearance at the venue. Historically, the Conservative party has been in quite an unchallenged position in the region, he said.

"I think that's changing. I'm really impressed with her," he added.

Kevin is a lifetime Labour supporter - and as it happens, Jack is an employee.

The company boss - whose business employs around 100 staff - has family across Bury St Edmunds, Stowmarket and Felixstowe - and recalled how he stood for the South Suffolk seat back in 2005.

Like the party, he is treating the result of the forthcoming election with an abundance of caution. "I hope that they do (win) but it would be a very foolish person that takes a single thing for granted," he said.

He wanted to see reform of business rates in Wednesday's Budget - but doesn't expect any change.

Jack - unsurprisingly - said it was too late for the Tories to turn things around anyway. "They have completely crashed the economy . We have had a decade of flatlining growth and wages," he added.

Out on the floor, one of the assembled guests - Rob Breakwell of Niche Cocktails of Easton, near Framlingham - said he came because he was "interested to hear what a new government could bring to our society and how that might look economically".

We were probably looking at the UK's next chancellor "and I'm not sure that would be such a bad thing either", he added. He was fed up with the upheaval and uncertainty which has plagued the current government.

"I think we need a calmer hand at the tiller to calm the nerves of a fairly jittery business community.

"I think one of the biggest issues at the moment with our economy is we have a huge lack of investment and a huge lack of productivity - and that has been created I think by a huge amount of uncertainty created by divisions our politicians are creating in society," he said.

"There's almost like a form of jeopardy being created all the time which is kind of exciting for the press but for anyone trying to run a business or trying to employ people or create prosperity or create growth that's a really tough environment to work in."

He added ruefully: "It feels like we have been through five or six years of pretty much self-inflicted chaos."

His small business is geared for growth, he said, having just bought a company called Boxtails - a cocktail which can be posted in a pouch - to help its online presence. It has also started another business called Toxin.

As far as the Budget went, he wanted certainty in an uncertain world. "If the government only gives us a budget for its small community of voters but not good for wider society or the economy in general - or it's just there to trip up the next government - then that would be bad for business," he warned.

He was not holding up any hope, but would love to see a cut in VAT - similar to what was delivered after the 2008/09 Credit Crunch crash when it was pegged down to 15% to help encourage spending in the economy.

"Despite the cost of living crisis I do think there's money in the economy that's waiting to be spent and I feel that society in general just needs an incentive to spend it whether that's on big ticket items or just going to the pub," he said. 

Simon Hughes, chief commercial officer at Colchester-based hyperfast broadband network provider County Broadband, sat on the fence when it came to election predictions.

"I'm open-minded," he said."Clearly the landscape is uncertain in politics and it would be wise for us to understand a potential incumbent for chancellor."

All he was seeking was a "benign environment for investment and renewed confidence for industry and those that finance industry to allow us to invest with certainty", he said.

Meanwhile Richard Miall, chief executive of Colchester-based civil engineers Richard Jackson - a £6m turnover business employing 70 people - said he came because he wanted an understanding of what Labour's political proposals were - in light of its "Get Britain Building Again" mantra.

"There's a big shortage of planners across the country and there's a huge need to build new houses," he explained.

He hoped he was looking at the next chancellor, he said, but didn't see the election result as being straightforward.

He added: "I'm not impressed with the current government. I have heard Rachel speak before. I do think she's got a lot of sensible things to say. She's very knowledgeable and I think she's a safe pair of hands."

On Budget Day he would like to see incentives to get the housing market moving with Help to Buy making a reappearance. People wanted certainty on mortgage rates - but his expectations were low.

"I don't think any of us are expecting a big giveaway in terms of tax giveaway. I'm not sure anything they do now will make any difference," he said.

But he cautioned: "Apathy is the biggest risk in terms of who's going to win the next election. There's a real danger we are going to get a really low turnout."

Candy Richards of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) called for the personal VAT threshold raised from £85k to £100k in the Budget against a bleak backdrop for small enterprises.

Small businesses were facing "incredible challenges" from a lack of growth and certainty about the outlook ahead and very low consumer confidence, she said.

Suffolk Chamber's head of public affairs Paul Simon said his organisation wanted to see better infrastructure, skills training and a "smarter and fairer" corporate taxation system.

Meanwhile Richard Brame, managing director of Willis Towers Watson in Ipswich - speaking personally - said he wanted taxes to be lowered. He thought the UK was very likely to see a change of government.

"People desperately want change - they want stability and confidence to invest," he said.

Labour has already mirrored the Conservative government's backing for two very big and very controversial regional projects - one a pylons link slicing through the East Anglian countryside and the other the Sizewell C nuclear project - giving voters who don't like the schemes a difficult dilemma.

Organic farm entrepreneur William Kendall of Maple Farm, Kelsale hoped Sizewell C would founder - but saw the result of the election as a done deal.

"It would be a rash person to say otherwise - even if you don't believe polls. If she's the next chancellor I'm a business person and it matters quite a lot what they do," he said.

"The thing that matters most to me from an economic point of view is how we are going to drive greater productivity and investment in the UK," he added. "We need an economy that people feel optimistic about."

He remained convinced the Sizewell C nuclear project is in the wrong place and is unaffordable and held out hope it would be dropped - even at this late stage.

But Julia Pyke, joint managing director of Sizewell C - also at the gathering - was confident politicians in the two main parties would hold the course. "I don't know why people want to run that narrative - we have started work on the site," she said.

"We are very confident that both major parties are very supportive of nuclear generally and Sizewell C specifically."