Time to tighten the belt ?

Later this week (27 October 2021) Rishi Sunak will present his second budget during 2021.

It is likely that reduced public expenditure and higher taxation will be features of this budget as the Treasury seeks to limit any further rise in government borrowings. The Chancellor will also have in mind increases in inflation and the growing possibility that interest rates may need to increase next year.

More recently, global trading has been hit by a series of additional issues (Brexit for example) that have conspired to delay supply chains. Witness the recent petrol shortages and gaps on supermarket shelves.

Further, it seems clear that sectors of our economy that have benefitted from the free movement of labour from the EU, are now under-resourced as they struggle to find replacements in the UK employment market.

We have also witnessed the ending of major support by government to employers and the self-employed (primarily the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme) and it is hard to find evidence that the time for the easing of belt-tightening will be coming any time soon.

These challenges come at a time when we all have a need to relax and break loose from the restrictions placed on our business and personal lives by the COVID pandemic.

Let’s hope that the Chancellor has some strategies in mind to ease our present discomforts. Next week our posts will update you on the major announcements in the budget, and hopefully, there will be some good news to report.