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A panel at this week’s Downtown Manchester in Business ‘Beyond the Budget’ event has said that confidence amongst the city’s business community is improving, despite the drastic changes announced in the budget last week.
The debate, held at the Restaurant Bar and Grill on John Dalton Street, featured representatives from business advisory firm RSM Tenon as well as leading North West entrepreneur Scott Fletcher of ANS Group, Chairman of DMIB, Frank McKenna and Stuart Anderson of EN Magazine.
John O’Mahony, head of the tax division in the North West at RSM Tenon, said: “My feeling is that business confidence is definitely on the up and many of my clients are now looking to move things forward having suffered a long period of difficulty over the past two years.”
John Gillibrand, director of corporate finance at RSM Tenon, added: “We have seen this confidence reflected in the corporate finance market in particular. There is a degree of realism returning to business owners, and many companies are not being sold at over-inflated prices. This return to sensible valuations of enterprises is already helping when dealing with the banks.”
Speaking on the proposed cuts to public services, Gillibrand added: “There was a clear signal from the treasury that it will be businesses that need to drive the economy forward. However, the big question still remains - how the Public Sector will approach and cope with 25 per cent cuts that need to be made over the next five years.”
Event host, Frank McKenna, went on to say: “The one big mistake last week was to ring-fence the NHS budget because it sends out the wrong signals. In my opinion, the NHS is as guilty as any other public service of a lack of efficiencies, and could make significant savings without losing nurses, doctors or closing wards.”
Scott Fletcher, Chairman of ANS Group, concluded: “It is important to realise that all of the proposed cuts and measures occur over five years and are not immediate, which should give business the time to adjust, adapt and prepare, which hopefully will soften the blow. All in all, it won’t be the tax cuts that hit people in the pocket, it is going to be things like mortgage repayments.”
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