2011 Autumn Statement

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NON-TAX MEASURES FOR SMEs

Credit easing

In order to free up lending to business, the Government is launching a package of measures worth up to £21 billion to ease the flow of credit to businesses. This includes up to £20 billion for the National Loan Guarantee Scheme and £1 billion for the Business Finance Partnership.

Small business rate relief holiday

The Government will extend the current small business rate relief holiday for a further six months from 1 October 2012 and also give businesses the opportunity to defer 60% of the increase in their 2012/13 business rate bills.

Employment regulations

In an attempt to make it easier to 'hire and fire', the Government intends to:

• look for ways to provide a quicker and cheaper alternative to a tribunal hearing in simple cases by introducing a 'Rapid Resolution' scheme
• complete a call for evidence on the impact of reducing the collective redundancy process for redundancies of 100 or more staff from the current 90 days to 60, 45 or 30 days.

The Government will begin a call for evidence on two proposals for reform of UK employment law. They will:

• seek views on the introduction of compensated no-fault dismissal for micro-businesses with fewer than 10 employees
• look at how it could move to a simpler, quicker and clearer dismissal process, potentially including working with ACAS to make changes to their code or by introducing supplementary guidance for small businesses.

Youth Contract

A number of measures under the heading of a 'Youth Contract' will be introduced, including Government funding of:

• wage incentives for 160,000 young people to make it easier for private sector employers to take them on
• at least 40,000 incentive payments for small firms to take on young apprentices.

Planning reform

The Government has announced a series of changes to the planning regime. Changes will include:

• introducing a 13-week maximum timescale for the majority of non-planning consents
• building more flexibility into the new major infrastructure planning process, particularly in the pre-application phase
• reviewing the planning appeals procedures to make them faster and more transparent
• consulting on proposals to allow existing agricultural buildings to be used for other business purposes such as offices, leisure and retail space.

Housing

In an attempt to increase house building, stabilise the housing market and enable more people to own their own home, the Government will:

• introduce a new build indemnity scheme under which home buyers will be able to purchase new build houses and flats with a 5% deposit, with house builders and the Government helping to provide security for the loan
• reinvigorate the 'Right to Buy' to help social tenants buy their home
• launch a new £400m 'Get Britain Building' investment fund, which will support firms in need of development finance
• support new development, which could include modern garden cities and urban and village extensions.