Aside from revealing £250 million to solve Operation Stack, there was much to be poured over for Kent companies in the Autumn Statement and Spending Review.

National newspapers have said Chancellor George Osborne was able to hold off expected cuts to tax credits and police budgets because of an unexpected £27 billion tax windfall and lower debt interest payments.

Instead, he revealed measures like a 0.5% apprenticeship levy on top companies to fund plans for three million apprentices by 2020, powers for councils to raise taxes by 2% to pay for social care and a raft of other measures.

Here is what Kent companies thought of the announcements:

Lee May, associate at law firm Brachers in Maidstone, said: “George Osborne’s pledge of £310m to aid delivery of the Ebbsfleet Garden City will be welcomed by developers across Kent.

“Plans for 15,000 homes at Ebbsfleet will help to boost housing supply and generate economic redevelopment in the region.

“Measures such as this and the introduction of the Deregulation Act which came in earlier this year signal a concerted effort to kick-start much needed housebuilding which has stalled over the last year.”

Clive Relf, partner at Kent accountant Kreston Reeves, said: “The biggest shock of the Autumn Statement was perhaps how few shocks there were, although the apprenticeship levy was certainly one of them.

“The 0.5% rate on an employer’s payroll will be a serious challenge to medium sized firms in Kent, especially as many adjust to the imminent National Living Wage.

“But there must also now be a question mark over the future of the buy-to-let market. The additional Stamp Duty of 3 % to be imposed on buy-to-let sales and second homes from April 1 next year could result in an additional tax bill of £11,250, a rise of 75 %, on a £500,000 property.”

Nick Paterno, managing partner of McBrides Chartered Accountants in Sidcup, said: “The Chancellor George Osborne’s Autumn Statement was a largely political affair rather than a statement for business.

“With the exception of the extension of the small business rate relief and the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy (which will impact larger scale employers with payrolls above £3million) the Autumn Statement was light on predicted and actual measures for business.”

Nicola Plant, a partner at law firm Thomson Snell & Passmore in Tunbridge Wells, said: “Having already had two full Budgets in 2015 and with a lot of changes already announced it was no surprise that there were very few amendments to capital taxes such as inheritance tax and capital gains tax included in the Autumn Statement.

“The Chancellor’s strategy for balancing the books focused on cuts to public spending and increasing measures for anti-avoidance and penalties (ensuring tax due is collected in a timely manner), rather than increasing the tax rates themselves.”

Jo James, chief executive of Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce, said: “Once again the ‘builder’ Chancellor has used the tools at his disposal to create a Statement that the majority of businesses will applaud.

“The OBR forecasts gave the Chancellor more room to move than was predicted, so this wasn’t the doom and gloom Spending Review that most people anticipated.

“We are delighted that the Chancellor has used this opportunity to listen to business on infrastructure, particularly on repairing our broken road network. This will help move people and goods more efficiently across the country, which will help businesses to grow.”

Craig Harman from Perrys Chartered Accoutants in Tunbridge Wells said: “Once again landlords have come under attack with one of the biggest announcements of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement being that stamp duty land tax will be applied at higher rates for buy-to-let and second homes from next April.

“Additionally the window for paying capital gains tax on residential property owed will be decreasing significantly to within 30 days of disposal from April 2019 rather than the current timeframe of between 10 and 22 months.”

---

Read the thoughts of our political editor Paul Francis about the Autumn Statement on his blog here