Responding to the Chancellor's Autumn Statement yesterday, the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) welcomed the changes to Capital Allowances and the intention to further reduce the rate of corporation tax.
The FDF Director General Melanie Leech said “As the country's largest manufacturing sector and with a vision shared with government to grow the sector by 20% by 2020, FDF welcomes the targeted measures in today's Autumn Statement.
“The Chancellor's announcements on increasing the Annual Investment Allowance and reducing the headline rate of Corporation Tax should both stimulate business investment. This is great news, particularly for an industry which encompasses businesses of all sizes – from global companies choosing to invest in the UK through to SMEs looking to grow their operations in response to growing overseas demand for food and drink products.
“Our industry has had seven consecutive years of export growth and we know we can continue to expand the export of high quality British food and drink. We are pleased that UKTI has recently strengthened its commitment to support food and drink businesses and welcome today's announcement of its funding increase and of the new export finance facility which should also help even more companies to grow through export.”
“In addition, the Chancellor's move to abolish the proposed hike in the fuel price next month is a welcome announcement that will help both shoppers and businesses who are already feeling the pinch of rising prices.”
