A helping hand for farming and tourism essential in the Budget

CHANCELLORS like to have a few golden nuggets in their budgets – unexpected and welcome financial tweaks that make us all sit up and take notice. But Jeremy Hunt is unlikely to be too bothered if his budget this week attracts little more than a murmur of approval.

After the car crash that was Kwasi Kwarteng’s package of financial measures last September, when Liz Truss was making a hash of being prime minister, no one wants a budget that even remotely frightens the horses or sends the money markets into another tailspin.

As this is phase two of the SunakHunt plan to rescue the UK economy from the Truss-Kwarteng crisis, we are likely to see a budget that is more steady-as-she-goes than setting the world on fire. There will be little room for tax cuts, perhaps a few measures to help consumers, including extending the energy price cap, and maybe some help to settle the current wave of strikes, particularly in the NHS. Otherwise, expect caution.

It is business that needs real help, however, and there Mr Hunt may be able to deliver. In just one sector – agriculture – which is an important one for the Westcountry, support should be forthcoming. The National Farmers’ Union calls today for help to boost UK’s food production, helping offset soaring costs in energy-heavy sectors like horticulture and poultry and tweaking the tax rules to encourage investment.

In tourism too the Chancellor could help, perhaps with a cut – even a temporary one – in VAT levels to give the hospitality sector the break it desperately needs as it is hit by the double whammy of soaring costs and nervous customers suffering under the cost-of-living crisis.

The sheer scale of the difficulties in farming and hospitality at the moment could hardly be greater. When top-rated pubs are being forced to close and farm businesses are struggling to boost output at a time when the UK could hardly need it more, something has got to give.

The Chancellor needs to remember that food production in Britain is not just a ‘nice to have.’ It is essential. Global insecurity, the end of subsidy support from Europe and rising costs in feed, fuel and fertiliser are having a devastating impact on certain farming sectors which is being reflected in dramatic reductions in output. And with the fall off in UK production not being made up through imports, it doesn’t take long, in today’s just-in-time supply chain model, for shortages to become critical.

The calls on the Chancellor are significant and his room for manoeuvre extremely limited. But concentrating on a few areas to help get the most out of what is possible makes sense. Circumstances way beyond the government’s control, not least the hangover from the pandemic, have largely created the difficulties we are now facing.

The plan to restore confidence, bring down inflation, cut interest rates and prompt investment is, broadly, the right one. There is little – whatever they might say – that Labour would do differently.

A few positive nuggets directed at specific industries would definitely help. Let’s hope the Chancellor is heeding the advice he is getting.