An increase in employer national insurance, and full expensing extended… Duncan Harrison from Grant Handling – official importer and distributor of HELI Forklifts – discusses the budget’s impact of the budget on SMEs.
The Autumn Budget has sparked plenty of debate across the warehouse, storage and logistics sector. For SMEs operating 2-3 fork lift trucks – our core customers – the budget presents both challenges and opportunities.
Increase in National Insurance
The villain of the budget for businesses – so far – is the increase in Employers National Insurance (NI) contributions. Clare Bottle, Chief Executive of the UK Warehousing Association (UKWA), expressed concern about the rise in NI by 1.2% and the unexpected reduction of the NI threshold to £5,000 a double hit.
“This will hit warehouse operators hard, along with most other industries,” she warned, highlighting how increased operating costs could stress small operators already facing tight margins and cost pressures.
At Grant Handling, our team works closely with small operators and it’s difficult for us to see which pocket these extra costs will come out of. The focus for us is on improving efficiency, helping our SMR base to reduce costs and improve productivity to offset these additional cost pressures. Our Heli products are needed more than ever as we have a price advantage against the European manufactures whilst maintaining a comparable operational and technology performance.
Balancing costs with growth initiatives
It’s not all doom and gloom, despite the tax increase pressure, the budget includes several positives for productivity. For example, the decision to freeze fuel duty was warmly welcomed by SMEs as it provides a degree of stability for fleets that rely on ICE forklift, this sentiment has been echoed by Logistics UK, who acknowledge that fuel represents a large proportion of the weekly operating cost for logistics businesses.
The budget also extended full expensing, a significant boost for businesses needing capital investments. This move, praised by the Cold Chain Federation, is expected to empower businesses to invest in energy-efficient equipment. For SMEs, this opens the door to upgrading forklifts and other essential machinery, helping them remain competitive and efficient. Our electric forklift offer will help SMEs cost effectively invest in productive green solutions, the solution is only a phone call. If you wish to discuss how you can take advantage of full expensing and upgrade your fleet contact one of the Grant Handling team.
