INCOMING
THE CONVERSATION
THOMAS SMITH Miller Commercial
The big question
I was expecting a little more in terms of addressing the question of business rates – especially with the impact they have on the high street. While the extension of the rates holiday for retailers and leisure providers to June and a 66% discount for the remainder of tax year, it seems the Chancellor has kicked the can down the road and has not addressed the real challenge that business rates presents – that they do not accurately reflect the market conditions and they do not address the imbalance between town shopping and online retail.
TOM ROACH
PKF Francis Clark
Pleased with the Budget 2021 announcement? Was it a Budget for business, or something that fell short of expectations? Join the conversation @biz_cornwall
/businesscornwall
businesscornwall.co.uk ADVERTORIAL
CBILS, CLBILS, BBLS, Future Fund AIA, Small Business Grant Fund, LRSG, Lockdown Payments, ARG, Wet-led Pub Grants, SSP Rebate, CRAR (My favourite!) VAT Deferral, Business Rates, Reduced VAT rate, Eat out to Help Out, Charities Support, Culture Support, Sports Support, Zoos and Aquariums Support, TV and Films restart, CJRS, SEISS, UC increase, SDLT relief, Kickstart, Restart, Apprentice grant, Skills training…if he hasn’t done enough he’s certainly improved his scrabble scores!
KAREN LA BORDE
Cornwall Greens
While we welcome some of the measures introduced to help businesses survive in the short term, this budget showed that the Chancellor has failed to understand the gravity of the long-term problems we face. The Government is about to host the G7 here in Cornwall and has been making
WHY DOES YOUR BUSINESS NEED FAST INTERNET? Cornwall boasts some impressive broadband connectivity but behind the headlines, large swathes of the county and many businesses are poorly served by current infrastructure and missing out on the huge opportunities that fast and reliable Internet brings, says Wildanet CTO, Paddy Paddison. If you’ve been running your business for a while you’ve probably learned to cope with slow and (sometimes) unreliable Internet. Maybe you’ve got
4 | BUSINESS CORNWALL
little workarounds for the fact you can’t rely on your connection. You might even have convinced yourself it’s not a problem for your business.
