The Glass and Glazing Federation (GGF) has described Chancellor George Osborne’s final budget before this year’s General Election as ‘uninspiring and empty’.
Nigel Rees, GGF Group chief executive, commented:
“It’s hard to find anything of great significance to our members in this budget and we’re disappointed that incentives to homeowners to make their properties more energy efficient are non-existent. On the manufacturing front, we hope the updated Enhanced Capital Allowance for designated energy-saving technologies will include glass and glazing products. The only other possible positive on energy efficiency is the proposal to bring forward the compensation for indirect costs for small scale feed-in tariffs by one year. This may assist our energy intensive flat glass manufacturers, but is a relatively tenuous benefit in what is sadly an empty and uninspiring budget for our industry.
“One positive announcement in the budget was the government’s proposal for ‘housing zones’ to build more affordable housing by regenerating brownfield sites. Of course we welcome any initiative to increase new build, but this one is fairly limited – looking at the South West and South East only. Aligned to this, another proposal that may help our industry is the plan for a ‘Help to Buy ISA’ scheme, which could stimulate new house buying and carry through to replacement windows and conservatories. These proposals though are hardly earth shattering for businesses needing meaningful incentives to grow. We were hoping for something much more substantial to boost our industry and the UK economy, but it seems the Chancellor has missed this valuable opportunity to do so.”
The budget in full can be found here.
