As a rule trying to please all the people, all the time, is a recipe for failure but Alistair
Darling’s first budget seems to have succeeded based on responses from Business groups.
Or maybe he just tried not to hack them all off, either way the budget news went down well. The fly in the ointment was the deferral of the 2p rise in fuel costs which all would have preferred scrapped, given the 20p per litre rise in fuel prices during the last twelve months.
The reduction in Corporate Tax to 28% is a healthy sign-post on the route to the CBI’s much vaunted desire for an 18% rate within 8 years.
Welcome too was the allocation of an extra £60m for the Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme  as was maintenance of small firms’ Capital Gains Tax at 10%.
A £12.5m capital fund has been set aside to encourage women entrepreneurs.
In the current climate it would have been a tall order for Darling to pull an economic lucky
rabbit from the hat but could he have done a little more for business?Â
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