Ian Wenman, Vice Chair of the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership has welcomed the key aspects of the Chancellors Budget Statement, he said: “This year’s Budget has included a number of general and some specific changes to the tax regime which will benefit business in the county.

“Whilst it is clear we still have a long way to go to balance the Exchequer’s overdraft efforts are clearly being made to incentivise the business sector to grow.

“Reductions in Corporation Tax and business tax generally will assist. New initiatives to help exports, boost productivity and manufacturing will help our relevant local business.

“Specific reference was made in the Chancellor’s speech to Enterprise Zones and research and development tax relief which will help our local technology companies.

“ISA's which we can all invest in have had their investment levels raised, these can also now invest in quoted smaller companies which should increase the flow of funds available.

“Couple this with the increased funds for infrastructure, roads and flood relief Oxfordshire should see more beneficial impact than from many past Budgets

Here are the key points of Chancellor George Osborne's 2014 Budget:

STATE OF THE ECONOMY

• GDP forecast to grow by 2.7% this year and 2.3% next year, then by 2.6% in 2016 and 2017 and by 2.5% in 2018

BUSINESS

• Business Lending for exporters doubled to £3bn and interest rates on that lending cut by a third
• Business rate discounts and enhanced capital allowances in enterprise zones extended for three years
• Corporation tax will be down to 21%,
• High street stores will get £1,000 off their rates
• R&D tax credit raised for loss-making small businesses from 11% to 14.5%.
• Every business gets the Employment Allowance – a £2,000 cash-back on jobs
• The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme to help finance start-ups is being made permanent
• Investment Allowance doubled to £500,000 and extended to end of 2015

SKILLS

• The number of apprenticeships doubled
• Grants for smaller businesses extended to support over 100,000 more apprenticeships

TAXATION

• Point at which people start paying income tax will be raised to £10,500
• National Insurance Class 2 NICs move to self assessment for 5 million people
• Bingo duty will be halved to 10%
• Threshold for 40p income tax to rise from £41,450 to £41,865 next month and by a further 1% to £42,285 next year.
• Inheritance tax waived for members of emergency services who give their lives in job
• Tax on homes owned through a company to be extended from residential properties worth more than £2m to those worth more than £500,000
• All long-haul flights to carry lower rate of air duty currently charged on flights to US
• SAVINGS
• Cash and shares Isas to be merged into single New Isa with annual tax-free savings limit of £15,000 from 1 July
• The 10p tax rate for savers abolished
• Cap on Premium Bonds to be lifted from £30,000 to £40,000 in June and £50,000 next year

PENSIONS

• All tax restrictions on pensioners' access to their pension pots to be removed, ending the requirement to buy an annuity
• Taxable part of pension pot taken as cash on retirement to be charged at normal income tax rate, down from 55%
• Increase in total pension savings people can take as a lump sum to £30,000
• New Pensioner Bond, paying "market-leading" rates, available from January to over-65s, with possible rates of 2.8% for one-year bond and 4% for three-year bond - up to £10,000 to be saved in each bond

HOUSING / INFRASTRUCTURE

• Help to Buy scheme extended to 2020
• Support for building of more than 200,000 new homes
• £270m guarantee for Mersey Gateway bridge Legislation to give Welsh government tax and borrowing powers to fund infrastructure needs, including improvements to M4
• £140m extra for flood defence repairs and maintenance
• £200m made available to fix potholes

FUEL, ALCOHOL & TOBACCO DUTY

• Alcohol and Tobacco Beer duty cut by 1p a pint
• Duty on ordinary cider frozen
• Fuel duty rise planned for September will not happen
• Tobacco duty to rise by 2% above inflation

COINAGE

• New twelve-sided £1 coin to be introduced in 2017

WELFARE

• The welfare budget to be capped at £119bn for 2015-16

DEFICIT AND PUBLIC BORROWING

• Deficit forecast to be 6.6% of GDP this year, 5.5% in 2014-15 then falling to 0.8% by 2017-18 with a surplus of 0.2% in 2018-19
• Borrowing forecast to be £108bn this year and £95bn next year, leading to a surplus of almost £5bn in 2018-19
• A new charter for budget responsibility to be brought in this autumn
• Promises to make permanent £1bn reduction in government department overspends

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