Jennifer and Laurence discuss the Budget, a law firm on the look out for a new office and a pudding maker in Northern Ireland.
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00:00A landmark budget, a law firm on the lookout for new offices and a pudding
00:06manufacturer in Northern Ireland. That's all coming up in today's business
00:10briefing.
00:16My name is Lawrence Cullganan. And I'm Jennifer O'Keefe. Well morning Jen, so it's a
00:22big day for the world of business where proceedings are dominated by the
00:26budget. It's the first Labour budget for more than 14 years, so a huge day for
00:33for Labour. And actually I think it's a chance for them to start owning the
00:38sort of the Parliament because there's been a lot of talk about 22 billion
00:42pound black holes and so on. And eventually I think people want to say
00:45well what are you going to do about it? So today's a real chance to find out
00:49more. And for everyone else interested be sure to go to insidermedia.com because
00:54we're running a live blog through the day which will have the pick of the
00:58announcements, reaction to that. And we'll also be sending out our regionalised
01:02newsletters after the Chancellor sits down. So that'll be about 2.30 to 3
01:07o'clock. And we're getting a representative from MHA coming in to
01:12talk about the finer points of the budget. So it's a busy day ahead and an
01:15exciting day. I mean it's always a bit of a smoke and mirrors before any budget
01:21and this time there's been suggestions that there might be changes to the
01:25capital gap tax system, capital gains tax sorry, and also talk of maybe changes to
01:32inheritance tax. So we'll wait and see. And normally we expect a infrastructure
01:38announcement of some sort. So there has been machinations behind the scenes to
01:42create a bit more room I understand. So it'll be interesting to see if we do get
01:46some big announcements, big schemes going forward. But Jen what have we heard so
01:50far? Yeah so a few of the things that we know so far is that there will be a new
01:55£3 cap on bus fares which will replace the current £2 cap. Also the
02:01government has pledged during the week of a £240 million funding boost to
02:07accelerate the rollout of local services to help people get back into work.
02:12Aside from that in schools, from January 1st private schools will no
02:19longer be exempt from that. Yeah that caused a big fuss didn't it because I
02:25don't know people were saying oh no it was an outrage and there was some talk
02:30that the government was considering rowing back from that. But I think that's
02:33been sort of rubbish so we'll wait and see. But these are decisions that make
02:39big sort of difference to people's lives and the amount of
02:43disposable cash they have. So we'll certainly wait and see what's going on
02:48there. I mean there has been a lot of talk about we need to sort of reset the
02:53economy, bigger shoulders will bear the bigger burdens and so on. So the
02:58mood music is slightly different and it will be interesting to see how
03:02the government handle it because there was also a lot of talk that they
03:05won't be sort of increasing taxes for working people but they really have
03:09tied themselves up in knots as to what that equates to. So again
03:14we'll see what happens and it will be interesting. And as well as the
03:19announcements we'll have all the reaction afterwards as well so it'll be
03:22very interesting to see. Now away from that, away from the budget, we have some
03:28information, some news about a pudding manufacturer to lighten the mood. Yeah a bit different.
03:32So over in Ireland the Ironman based desserts manufacturer Davidson's
03:38it announced it's expanding its range with new ready-to-eat puddings.
03:42Fantastic. I saw that they make trifles, that was on my Sunday lunch
03:46this weekend. So the news came as it received a £6 million funding line
03:54from HSBC UK. So it's a family-owned business and it specialises in hot
03:59desserts for retail and food services and employs almost 120 people.
04:04Fantastic. Yeah so it said it will use the funding to refurbish an existing
04:08unit and that is on-site and to purchase a new automated process and
04:13packing line. Right okay, well good. More investment in puddings is always a good
04:18thing as far as I'm concerned. Another interesting story actually was over in
04:22the Northwest where JMW Solicitors has revealed they're on the lookout for a
04:27new office in Manchester City Centre. Often you find out that they've struck
04:32the deal but this time that they've sort of let us know that they are on the
04:35lookout for a new base. They have two sites in Manchester currently and three
04:39Harbour Street and one Byron Place where they employ about 600 people. So for
04:44landlords in the city centre it's a real sort of right okay well I've got just
04:48the thing for you. So it'll be really interesting to see where they turn up
04:51and I look forward to hearing more about that. So to find out more about the
04:56stories Jen and I have been talking about go to insidermedia.com. There you
05:00can also find out how to get on to our live vlog this afternoon for the budget
05:04and also subscribe to our newsletters and our magazines. That's everything from
05:11us today, see you next time.