(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors) Business broadly welcomed the new British government’s legislative agenda for the coming year but warned that dragging out an EU referendum may hit confidence - and said the UK should stay in.
The Queen’s Speech on Wednesday included moves to cut small business regulation to set up an arbitration service to settle disputes between big and small companies and to streamline business rates.
A National Insurance Contributions & Finance Bill featured plans to block any rises in income tax VAT or NI before 2020 and to raise the threshold above which people pay income tax to £12500.
Plans to allow 1.3mln housing association tenants to buy their homes cheaply are in a new Housing Bill. There will be help for first-time buyers with 200000 starter homes for under-40s at a 20% discount but it was unclear if they would be on top of those already planned.
A Childcare Bill will double the amount of free childcare for 3-4 year-olds available to parents in England to 30 hours a week for 38 weeks of the year.
There were also proposals to create an independent oil & gas industry regulator and to let local councils approve big onshore wind farms in England and Wales rather than Whitehall.
Ministers are also launching a bill to let work start on the £50bn HS2 high-speed rail link.
The CBI said measures to reform the EU must be achievable and realistic. It urged ministers to get on with big infrastructure projects like HS2 and expanding airport capacity.
CBI deputy director-general Katja Hall added: “We need to go further if we are to create the 240000 new homes a year we need to meet demand.”
Scottish Friendly said extending the right-to-buy policy of the 1980s to housing association tenants could drive up house prices and stop many getting on the property ladder.
Warwick Business School welcomed the small business conciliation service but added: “It will only benefit small firms involved in disputes. The experience of other countries – most notably perhaps Australia – suggests the value of such organisations having a wider remit.”
The school’s Enterprise Research Director Stephen Roper added: ““The biggest negative from a small business perspective is the uncertainty caused by the forthcoming EU referendum. This may discourage some firms from investing in expanding European sales.”
The EEF echoed the concerns and urged David Cameron to accelerate the vote to 2016 from 2017.
Chief executive Terry Scuoler said: “British manufacturers remain overwhelmingly of the view that our economic wellbeing is linked to the EU and we must stay in membership.
“It makes no sense to disengage from our major market where we would still face all the costs of compliance and enjoy none of the influence.
“We can achieve reform by being an active and leading member from within.”
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