Letter In The Telegraph Today.

[Khandro]

SIR – We have been manufacturing farm machinery since 1847, employing about 60 skilled engineers. We are owned by our workforce.

Turning over about £10 million, we manage to squeeze out a profit every year, and invest heavily in development, which is why we are still in business.

The Budget will increase our employment costs (report, November 1) by £50,000 a year – that’s money straight off the bottom line, which HMRC cannot take 25 per cent from by way of corporation tax.

Our decision to invest in a new machining centre has now been put on ice, and we await the fallout from our customers, all of whom are farmers. 

Add to this business rates, ridiculous health and safety requirements, crippling final salary pension fund rules, the price of electricity, and the general interference from government in so many aspects of running a private company, and is it any wonder that manufacturing in the UK is on its knees?

In the 47 years I have been a director of the company, I cannot remember having to face such an uncertain future.

Anthony Bone
Chairman, Standen Engineering Ltd
Ely, Cambridgeshire

I guess that says it all.  ?

[gulliver1]

The Tory propaganda machine kick starting again after licking their wounds for four months..lol🤣

[Sinead_O]

What the gullible Labour supporters can't see is that this disastrous Labour budget will DIRECTLY affect thousands of employees, despite all of Starmer and Reeve's reassurances to the contrary prior to the election.  This government is absolutely pathetic, and takes workers for granted.

[naomi24]

//What the gullible Labour supporters can't see is....//

 

They don't understand business either.

[nicebloke1]

The media eh. Don't you just love them. Farmers are always pleading poverty and have done so for years. Unless you class a farmer of being poor because he's only got one brand new Range Rover on the drive instead of two.

They could however start to produce more of what we need, than over produce like they always do this time of year in the form of tons and tons of veg that ends up rotting either in the fields or on the supermarket shelf, because even at a 20p per kilo bag they still dont sell or are required.

[Deskdiary]

Naomi at 10.26 - indeed. The reason why this was such a ham-fisted, anti-business anti-growth budget was because virtually none of the cabinet have any business experience. Most of them have only ever suckled from the public money teat.

[Khandro]

canary; //So suddenly a letter from a Company who aren't competitive enough to survive in the Private Sector is used by the Tory Newspaper to criticise the Labour Government - you couldn't make it up.//

So suddenly a jaundiced letter from the left, displaying the usual envy of anyone attempting acheivement, in this case giving employment to 60 skilled engineers.

Please tell us, have you ever employed anyone and run a business, on that, or any scale?