Chancellor John Healey will deliver his first budget on Wednesday, and across southern England the expectations attached to it are concrete rather than abstract. BBC reporters spoke to small business owners, a driving instructor, first-time buyers and a publican about what they want from the statement. Fuel costs, the housing market and hospitality taxation dominated their answers.
The Treasury said Healey has already been "giving the high street more breathing space," citing cuts to business rates, according to BBC.
Why it matters
The budget lands at a moment when diesel prices in the UK have hit an all-time high, a finding the RAC published earlier this month, BBC reports. For businesses whose vehicles are the operation — minibuses, delivery vans, learner cars — that cost feeds directly into whether they can keep going. Meanwhile, buyers in the South face a market where most homes sold are second-hand, which sits awkwardly with a flagship scheme built around new builds.
Charities and small firms count the cost of fuel
Diana Logan-Watts manages MS Centre Dorset, which relies on five adapted minibuses to collect people from their homes. Without that service, she told the BBC, those users would have no way of reaching the centre at all. The charity is making difficult decisions and is reluctant to shift costs onto the people it serves.
Meg Hunter runs an independent family florist in Winchester and delivers across the region. She cannot afford a shop, so her van is essential. She described fuel costs as "just ridiculous" and said the business has absorbed them so far, but suppliers have begun adding a higher fuel contribution, which she will now have to pass through. She prices work three to six months ahead, and with fuel climbing quickly, the margins she had planned around have disappeared.
A tradesman in the region, who prices jobs months in advance, told the BBC he wants fuel duty cut and the temporary 5p reduction retained; that measure is scheduled to lapse at the end of the year. He said he is seriously considering walking away from the business.
Paul, a driving instructor in Oxfordshire, can cover a couple of hundred miles a day taking learners to test centres in places such as Swindon and Banbury. His fuel bills have roughly doubled in a matter of weeks, from about £30 to about £60. He said the cost is hitting his bottom line and, while he accepts the government needs revenue, he suggested a review of how the money is used.
Housing: failed purchases and a scheme aimed at new builds
Phoebe Jupp and her partner Kai have spent 16 months trying to buy their first home near Portsmouth. Three purchases have collapsed. They are living in her mother's bedroom while her mother sleeps on a sofa-chair in the lounge. Each failure has cost them survey and solicitors' fees, and they are now drawing on their deposit. Jupp wants a system like Scotland's, where the seller pays for the survey, so buyers know what they are taking on.
Rebecca Guest is selling a one-bedroom flat in Newbury to move to the North East, where she hopes eventually to be mortgage-free. She described the local market as favouring buyers, with for-sale signs throughout the area, and said she is heartbroken at having lost most of the capital she put into the property. She wants first-time buyers to be able to get mortgages on all kinds of property, not only new builds.
Healey is expected to confirm the Your First Home scheme, which allows a purchase of a new-build with a 2.5% deposit and a 20% equity loan. Most homes sold in the South are second-hand, BBC notes.
Dan Channer, chief executive of Jones Robinson estate agents in Newbury, said the market is better than many assume and that September was the firm's strongest sales month in several years. He wants the budget to project confidence so people stop feeling fearful, and he favours adjusting stamp duty thresholds and creating incentives for older homeowners to downsize.
Hospitality and the VAT question
Chris Smith, landlord of the Crown at Chilton and the George at Upton, both near Didcot in Oxfordshire, wants VAT for hospitality reduced. His call echoes a long-running campaign from pubs and restaurants for a lower rate on food and drink served on premises.
The Treasury's position, as put to the BBC, is that business rates relief already amounts to support for high street operators. Critics of that approach argue rates relief does little for businesses whose costs are driven by fuel and energy rather than premises.
What to watch
Wednesday's statement will show whether fuel duty, the shape of the first-time buyer scheme and hospitality VAT move in the directions these southern voters have asked for — and whether the Treasury's existing reliefs are judged sufficient.
