Hertfordshire County Council slams Government budget's impact on businesses and farmers

According to the motion, when the new government was elected the country had the fastest growing economy in the G7, mortgage interest rates were falling and inflation was back to Bank of England target levels.

But the motion – proposed by Conservative council leader Councillor Richard Roberts – points to forecasts that now suggest growth will now be lower, inflation will rise and mortgage interest rates are set to increase.

And it suggests that this is as a result of the Chancellor’s 30 October budget statement.

Addressing the council at the meeting, on Tuesday (10 December), Councillor Roberts highlighted the impact that the budget would have on the county’s businesses, farmers and residents.

He highlighted changes to the Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief, that will increase costs when farms are handed down through generations – slamming the move as the “rabbit out of the vindictive fiscal policy hat”.

He pointed to the increases in employers National Insurance contributions – that he said would cost Hertfordshire-based Tesco “a cool billion”, the police £3m and the county council “12 big ones, just for adult social care with our providers”.

And he said: “So now all businesses are worse off, all public sector organisations are worse off and all voluntary sector organisations are worse off.

“Everyone – absolutely everyone – is worse off,because the cost of everything is going to go up.”

And he later added: “So I am no economist, but even I can see that in a very short few months HMG have successfully annoyed everyone.”

Councillor Roberts says they had “almost guaranteed” that there would be less growth and fewer houses built.

And pointing to Hertfordshire’s position in the heart of England’s economic powerhouse, he said the Labour government produced the perfect recipe to undermine those areas that keep the rest of the country financially afloat.

During the debate, leader of the Liberal Democrat group Councillor Steve Jarvis said it was right that the new government had “made a less than stunning start in some areas”.

And he said that while the budget had put badly needed funding into the NHS and had recognised the distinction in public spending between investment and spending, “there was much which was clearly not good”.

He said it was the case that there were people who had exploited the inheritance tax relief on agricultural land who are not farmers.

He said it was not unreasonable that those people should have that loophole closed off,”but that was not what the government has done”.

And he said it was not unreasonable that some very wealthy pensioners should not get a fuel allowance. But he said that was not what the government had done.

He also pointed to the impact changes to National Insurance would have on the council and on businesses.

But he said that the Conservative motion pretended “that everything was wonderful until the fourth of July” – which he said that wasn’t the case.

He said the motion ignored the “enormous impact of the Liz Truss mini budget, which he said had cost the Treasury £30bn in an afternoon.

And he said it had ignored the impact of the previous government’s decisions around Brexit – and the cost that that had for the country.

In proposing a Liberal Democrat amendment he pointed to the ‘fact’ that people’s standard of living has “declined”, the economy is a “mess” and many public services are “struggling”.

And he said the amendment sought to recognise the previous government is “very largely responsible for this country’s current economic position”.

“So whilst acknowledging that the budget didn’t improve matters to anywhere near the extent it should have done, we need to recognise that we are in the wrong place because of long term failure – not failure that started in July,” he said.

During the debate Labour’s Councillor Ian Albert began his response in verse, in the style of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.

And he went on to say the motion had set out ‘the world before July that only existed in Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss’s dreams – which he said had been “decisively rejected” on 4 July.

He said they could trade numbers and forecasts “selectively”. But he said what was clear was that the last government had left the ‘elephant trap’ of unfunded commitments.

He acknowledged not all of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ choices might have been his – but that he, nor Councillor Roberts, had the full picture of the state of the economy.

And he said: “I believe the Labour government is already increasing funding to our schools, our NHS and to our farms and farmers with significant new support.

“We have seen new funding for SEND, new funding for school repairs. And we have seen the first steps to improve local government funding – something which the previous government failed miserably for 14 years.”

Following a debate on the motion, the council – which has a Conservative majority – rejected the Liberal Democrat amendment and voted in favour of the Conservative motion.