“It hasn’t changed our predictions. The whole Budget was pretty much where I expected it to be which isn’t a lot of help for the sector and isn’t a lot of help for hospitality.”
This is Chris France’s view as the managing director of Jennings Brewery spoke to Business Crack’s Northern Lights podcast.
His business has recorded major growth since launching at the start of the summer. Contracts to supply Jennings growing stable of brews to outlets across the north and a recruitment campaign to enable the reopening of the brewery to visitors have kept his growing team busy.
“We always pay above those (minimum living wage) rates which I expected to go up.
“The one surprise actually was the change in business rates which will be a little bit of help,” he added. ”You’ve got to hope that that doesn’t stop people coming to the Lakes and having a good time and enjoying a good pint.”
Elsewhere Jayne Oxley, Marketing Manager at Oxley Developments in Ulverston, told the podcast she was disappointed at a lack of support for businesses in Cumbria with the county missing out to areas with mayors.
“I was disappointed to see that 13 billion pound had been given to mayoral authorities for skills and business support. But there wasn’t that same kind of funding coming into areas like Cumbria where we’ve got a real need for investment in skills, business support. It would have been great to see some funding along those lines coming into our area.”
Barrow’s Foodbank is on track to record its busiest year feeding more people than ever.
Project manager Matthew Burden told the podcast the decision to end the two-child cap was welcome news but the charity faces a growing challenge when it comes to providing support to those who need it.
“This will mean that 450,000 children should be lifted out of poverty so the reaction here has been, that’s great,” he said. “It’s moving in the right direction.”
However he said despite demand increasing, the number of donations had decreased in recent times as people above the poverty line face increasing challenges.
Meanwhile Ben Harrison, director of The Work Foundation, a think tank at Lancaster University said he hoped the government would be keeping an eye on the hospitality and retail sectors.
“We did see that rather significant rise in the Budget for the youth rate of the minimum wage in particular.
That’s part of government’s commitment to equalise the different rates of the national minimum wage and it’s quite a big step towards that.
I think what I would say overall is it’s really important that we provide young people and those on low pay with the sort of reward for their work that A, is merited, but also that gives them financial security through work and an ability to properly plan their lives outside of work as well,” he said.
“But we do need to keep an eye on what’s happening with entry level jobs in particular over the coming period.
“We’ve seen a decline in vacancies over the course of the last 12 months in the labour market and that could lead to a tougher jobs market for workers overall.”
