'I don't see much working in our favour': Wolverhampton business owners tell of Budget 2025 hopes and fears

There has been a lot of conversation from financial experts and columnists about what might be in the red box, but the predictions are for extending the freeze on income tax thresholds, scrapping the controversial two-child benefit cap and making some changes to taxes on high-value homes.

It is also expected the Chancellor will cut the five per cent VAT on domestic energy bills, while the Government announced last week that rail fares will be frozen for the first time in 30 years.

This time last year, businesses bore the brunt of a brutal set of hikes in the 2024 autumn Budget, with minimum wage and National Insurance increases, so business people around the country have been nervously awaiting Wednesday's revelations from the House of Commons.

In Wolverhampton, the feeling among business owners and leaseholders was a mixture of hoping for changes which would be beneficial for them, but also a feeling of scepticism about how much of it will actual help them and how much they could stand to lose from the budget.

At the Family Butchers on Cleveland Street, director Bilaal Hussain said he hoped to see help with reducing expenses around the business, but said he felt nothing would change.

He said: "I'd like to see a reduction in the business rates to make things easier for us as being part of the Wulfrun Centre, there's a lot of expenses that we have as it stands with the increase in business rates, and it's not been helped by the taxes that the Government is trying to increase to cover their debts, which I don't think we should necessarily be liable for.

"Where we can make the difference, we're more than willing to do so, but at the same time, we've got a business to run and with the way the cost of living is, it's difficult to even get customers in, let alone for us to be able to sell a product.

"If we put ourselves in the situation of the customers, a fish that used to cost £55 a box is now £90 a box, and wages aren't rising to enough to cover that gap, so it's difficult as a business owner and as a customer and the way things are going, it's not worked in our favour and I don't think it's going to change."

Further down Cleveland Street, Mo Rai, who is leaseholder of Ocean Fryer, said he understood why there was a need to find the money to fill the black hole in finances, but said there were areas like the NHS and the price of groceries that needed looking at.

He said: "With the budget, I know that she's got a £1 billion hole to fill and taxes are going to be going up, plus anyone with a private pension has got to pay on that, but I don't know what's going to happen after that.

"I think they need to put money in the NHS as, at the moment, the NHS is really bad as you can't get a doctor's appointment and you need to be on the phone in the morning.

"Things are going up, from shopping to household bills and we're all just about surviving and on the borderline and with Christmas and January coming up, these are quiet times for us, so while a win from the budget would be no tax rises and help to get people working."

The subject of taxes was one which Debbie Morgan, owner of the Qattery on Victoria Street, said was the main priority for her, as well as help with business rates.

She said: "Ideally, we'd like to see a cut in taxes, as opposed to increases in taxes, as we're finding it very difficult with the amount of tax we're paying.

"It would be ideal that we would have a business rate threshold where we don't have to pay business rates on small businesses and while I'm not sure what the cap is at the moment, I think the busier we are, the more we are going to have to pay on business rates which will offset any of the income we can raise.

"Judging from what I'm hearing, there's going to be tax rises and income tax rises and it feels a bit scary at the moment as well, thinking about what there could be."