Plans for a new Enterprise Zone on Deeside could help generate hundreds of new jobs, according to a financial expert at one of North Wales leading accountancy firms.
Anthony Lewis, from Chartered Accountants Coxeys which represents a wide range of clients from sole traders right through to international market leaders, said Chancellor George Osborne’s third budget should help business grow.
Mr Lewis, a Director of the firm which has offices in Wrexham and Saltney, said the main headline grabber for the area was the formation of a new enterprise zone which has been announced for Deeside.
He said: “It will help local businesses in the area prosper and, hopefully, generate new jobs,” he said.
Deeside will get one of five new enterprise zones planned for Wales. The other enterprise zone in North Wales will be Anglesey.
The zone, next to Deeside Industrial Park, will include the former RAF Sealand site. Flintshire County Council has hopes that up to 5,000 new jobs can be created in the zone, along with a possible 1,100 new homes.
The authority sees the zone as a prosperous new Gateway to Wales.
Mr Lewis said the Deeside Enterprise Zone of the 80s brought in hundreds of new jobs by offering new business generous 100 per cent capital allowances on new construction.
Details are still to be announced by Welsh Assembly Government but it seems likely they will offer tax breaks on investment in Enterprise Zone industries and possibly rate relief.
“For businesses the Chancellor has stated that he will be simplifying the tax system for small unincorporated businesses with a turnover of up to £77,000 from 2013. This would be based on cash receipts only and operate in a similar way to the flat rate VAT system.
“This would make the process of producing your annual accounts far simpler,” said Mr Lewis.
“The full rate of Corporation Tax has been reduced from April 2012 to 24% which is below the previously announced drop to 25% and is expected to fall to 22% by 2014.
“This is good news for SMEs and larger firms with higher levels of profit and will help stimulate the local ecomomy.
“The Chancellor also announced that there would be enterprise loans available for young people to start their own business and more details of this will be announced later in the year.
“I notice that the Government is also going to address various VAT anomalies with the regards to hot and cold food, sports drinks and other areas.
“Fuel and Vehicle Excise duty will remain unchanged but a freeze has been implemented on the excise duty for hauliers. This will help with the transportation costs of businesses and hauliers in particular,” said Mr Lewis.
Meanwhile, there was a guarded reaction from both Tom Anwyl, Director of North Wales’s biggest housebuilder, Anwyl Construction, and Gareth Jones, the new Wales Vice-Chairman of the Federation of Master Builders, and Director of renewable energy systems experts Carbon Zero UK.
Tom Anwyl said: “It is disappointing though not unexpected that he didn’t continue the Stamp Duty holiday for first-time buyers just at a time when it would do most good.
“The building industry and the economy are seemingly poised to come out of recession and there’s a real need to get Britain building again.
“The Chancellor has announced extra funding to help construction companies build new homes which is a positive when experts estimate that we need to be building 250,000 new houses a year.
“As ever the devil is in the detail and we need to see whether this will happen in Wales and our only hope is that additional funding is put into construction and regenerating the economy by the Welsh Government.
“The decision to go ahead with the publication into law of the National Planning Policy Framework next week removes some of the obstacles to the building of new homes but again in Wales we need to see what the Government in Cardiff does.”
Gareth Jones was also positive about the support for the housing sector but disappointed that the renewable energy industry seemed to have been abandoned.
He said: “The help announced last week for first-time buyers and the Budget news that construction companies are to receive extra funding to build new homes are positives.
“With my Federation hat on I would welcome those measures and the reduction in red tape that the publication of the National Planning Policy Framework will bring although it is a shame that the Chancellor hasn’t extended the Stamp Duty holiday for first-time buyers.
“But from the renewable energy point of view it is a serious disappointment with no Green outlook for the future.
“Instead the Government are putting £3 billion into fossil fuels and saying they are the way forward with gas in particular the fuel of the future.
“I had hoped that green energy would be a priority but that hasn’t happened, there was nothing on the Renewable Heating Initiative Premium Payment and no encouragement for the renewable industry generally.
“The Budget has missed the opportunity to give more help to smaller construction companies. Building is a major key in starting the engine of the economy and the Chancellor has failed to turn that key.”
