Chancellor’s Budget falls short of reassuring business owners

Moray Chamber of Commerce echoes the warning issued by the Scottish Chambers of Commerce that businesses are now standing on the brink following the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget.

As the leading voice for businesses across Moray, and as part of Scotland’s largest business network representing thousands of firms across every region and sector, we are deeply concerned about the severe pressure these new tax measures will place on local enterprises, particularly our small and medium-sized businesses that form the backbone of Moray’s economy.

Taxation

• The government is maintaining personal tax thresholds and the National Insurance contributions (NICs) secondary threshold from 2028 until 2031
• The government is raising taxes on property, dividend and savings income. Existing allowances will continue to protect those with low to middle amounts of such income
• Amount under-65s can put into Cash ISAs (Individual Savings Accounts) capped at £12,000 a year, with the rest of the £20,000 annual allowance reserved for investments
• The government is restricting Employee Ownership Trust Capital Gains Tax relief from 100% to 50%
• Tax on sugary drinks extended to pre-packaged milkshakes and lattes from 2028, reversing an exemption when the tax was introduced in 2018
• From April 2026 there will be an increase in remote gaming duty from 21 to 40 per cent and abolition of bingo duty from its current 10per cent rate
• From April 2027, a new rate of general betting duty for remote betting will be introduced at 25 per cent, excluding self-service betting terminals, spread betting, pool bets, and horseracing
• Closing “low value consignment relief”, which exempts imports of £135 or less from customs duties
• The government will extend the scope of the higher rate of APD to cover all private jets above 5.7 tonnes from April 2027

Wages, benefits and pensions

• Cap limiting households on universal or child tax credit from receiving payments for a third or subsequent child to be scrapped from April
• Legal minimum wage for over-21s to rise 4.1% in April, from £12.21 to £12.71 per hour
• Rate for 18 to 20-year-olds to go up 8.5%, from £10 to £10.85 per hour, as part of a plan to establish a single rate for all adults
• Basic and new state pension payments to go up by 4.8% from April, more than the current rate of inflation, under the "triple lock" policy
• People paying into their pension pot under salary sacrifice schemes to start paying NI on contributions above £2,000 a year from 2029
• Help to Save scheme, which offers people on universal credit a bonus on savings, extended and expanded beyond 2027

Transport

• Fuel duty frozen for five months after April, followed by a staged increase from September 2026
• A new mileage-based tax for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid cars to be introduced from 2028
• Premium cars to be excluded from Motability scheme, which allows people on certain disability benefits to lease vehicles more cheaply

Entrepreneurs and Fast-Growing Firms

• Enterprise tax incentives: Doubling eligibility for enterprise tax incentives supporting scale ups to attract more investment and talent as they grow
• UK Listing Relief: A three-year stamp duty reserve tax exemption for newly listed firms boosting liquidity and giving scaling firms a compelling reason to choose the UK
• ISA reform and more support to help people invest will drive around £3 billion of retail investment towards UK-listed companies, boosting the competitiveness of UK stock exchanges

Other

• As a result of decisions at Budget 2025, the Scottish Government will receive an additional £510 million RDELex and £310 million CDEL through the operation of the Barnett formula. This is on top of record settlements at the Spending Review
• The government confirms that the temporary Energy Profits Levy (EPL) will be replaced by the permanent Oil and Gas Profits Mechanism (OGPM). The OGPM will be a revenue-based mechanism which only operates in times of high prices and will replace the EPL when it ends in 2030, or earlier if the EPL price floor triggers
• The UK Government’s Plan for Building the North Sea’s Energy Future, published alongside the Budget, sets out the action the government is taking to support ongoing investment in oil and gas and the management of existing fields for the entirety of their lifespan
• Up to £14.5 million of new funding in Grangemouth to support industrial projects that can create new jobs
• £20 million to upgrade Inchgreen Dry Dock from the government’s Growth Mission Fund, subject to business case
• Approval of the full business case for Forth Green Freeport, which aims to leverage £7.9 billion of investment over 10 years and create up to 16,000 direct jobs
• Up to £20 million of funding from the Growth Mission Fund for the redevelopment of Kirkcaldy town centre and seafront, subject to final business case
• £1.5 million of funding for two Scottish automotive companies from the latest DRIVE35 programme funding round
• Permanent lower business rates tax rates for over 750,000 retail, hospitality and leisure properties, worth nearly £900m a year from April 2026 (THIS WILL NOT APPLY IN SCOTLAND)
• Owners of properties worth £2m or more face a high value council tax surcharge from April 2028, to be collected alongside council tax. The tax will be banded, with properties valued at £5m+ facing a £7,500 hit. The lowest band - £2m to £2.5m - will be £2,500 (THIS WILL NOT APPLY IN SCOTLAND)

Sarah Medcraf,  Chief Executive of Moray Chamber of Commerce, said: While the UK Budget sets the overall financial envelope, many of the decisions that shape day-to-day life in Moray - schools, health & social care, transport and skills - sit with the Scottish Government. It’s for the Scottish Government to decide how that money is allocated, and we’ll find that out in January.

"Businesses in Scotland will be looking across the border at support announced today particularly around business rates for tourism, retail and hospitality, and investment in skills. These are the levers that directly affect competitiveness here.