Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

Money Box

Discussion & Talk

Podcasts

Factual: Money

The latest news from the world of personal finance

The latest news from the world of personal finance plus advice for those trying to make the most of their money.

BBC Radio 4 LW

Money Box: Small Businesses Hit By Budget?

What does the Budget mean for you?

11/07/2015

Small Businesses Hit By Budget?

BBC Radio 4 - Money Box, Small Businesses Hit By Budget?

Many small business owners are angry about the Budget. Ruth Alexander finds out why.

Ruth Alexander explores what the Budget means for small and micro-businesses, with a new national living wage and tax changes for the self-employed. Plus cheap rail travel.

In Wednesday's Budget, George Osborne told the House of Commons that it was not "right that we go on asking taxpayers to subsidise, through the tax credit system, the businesses who pay the lowest wages" and "that Britain is able to afford a pay rise... Britain deserves a pay rise and Britain is getting a pay rise". The Chancellor announced a compulsory National Living Wage of £9 an hour by 2020. But can Britain's businesses afford a pay rise of that level?

It was once said that Britain is a nation of shopkeepers, and it is now a nation of retail workers, with almost 5 million employed in this sector, many of them among the lowest-paid. Money Box talks to a shop-owner and one of his employees about the challenge of meeting the Chancellor's Living Wage.

Money Box looks at how various tax changes will affect freelancers and contractors, as the Government seeks to end what it calls "tax motivated incorporation". Is this the beginning of the end for the UK's 200,000 Personal Service Companies and a blow for self-starters or just a long-overdue levelling of the tax playing field between employees and the self-employed?

As the Competition and Markets Authority prepares to give its verdict in September on competition among Britain's retail banks, Money Box looks at whether it is the customers, rather than the banks who are to blame for the lack of "switching".

And in the latest in our Travel Tips series, Money Box looks at the cheapest ways to see Europe by rail.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Money Box

Small Businesses Hit By Budget?

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4