What The UK Carbon Budget 2010 Means For Small & Medium Businesses

Posted on 24. Mar, 2010 by Ross in Government Policy, United Kingdom

Did Alistair Darling leave anything sweet for your business in 2010’s Carbon Budget? Probably not.

There was plenty for small and medium businesses to digest in this year’s traditional budget, especially regarding the new National Investment Corporation, doubling the annual investment allowance and the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme, but there were little in the Carbon Budget which will be of interest to SME’s, with much of the attention of the budget fell on financing large capital investment projects such as nuclear reactors through the new green investment bank.

Chief amongst the Carbon Budget’s announcements was the staging of the planned 3p petrol tax increase across the whole year: a boost to all companies and their employees, but especially to transport and logistics companies. As brief a respite as it is against the continuing petrol tax rises to price people out of their cars, it will nonetheless help keep costs down for travel reimbursement and company fuel accounts. It also provides a boon to companies in rural areas where staff have no option but to drive to work in the absence of suitable public transport: the price of petrol is now getting to a point where travelling costs are now a genuine part of workers’ decision-making on whether to stay with a present employer or jump ship to somewhere closer to home.

Perhaps most important was the lack of announcement of more funding for some existing schemes which benefit small and medium businesses. The Carbon Trust’s Big Business Refit, for example, has now allocated 60% of it’s