John Newcomb, Builders Merchants Federation’s (BMF) CEO, has commented on the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget.
John said: “We fully expected this to be a difficult budget for our members, with many of the revenue raising measures flagged in advance.
“The majority of our merchant members are classified as SMEs, with over 70% having an annual turnover below £12.5m. While there was one piece of good news relating to fuel duty, this is far outweighed by the increases in minimum wage and national insurance contributions. Our members will be hugely impacted by these extra costs which will immediately come off their bottom line.
“This is extremely disappointing at a time when we are seeking to increase recruitment and skills in the building materials sector. Skills which will be essential if we are to fulfil the additional product demand to deliver 1.5m new homes, which the government has pledged, but provided little detail as to how they plan to achieve this target.
“As always, the devil is in the detail. We need to get Britain building. The sooner we start seeing details of how the government plans to achieve their housing target, the better.”