WITH the chancellor of the exchequer, Jeremy Hunt issuing his November statement, YH is inviting Harlow businesses’ to respond.

Firstly, Emma Robson of Stort Valley Spirits

AS a small, Harlow based company, it is disappointing that today’s budget announcement doesn’t specifically offer support to small businesses, particularly around the energy costs, which has a direct impact on not just our own costs, but our entire supply chain. 

The increase in National Minimum Wage won’t have an impact on us – we already pay Real Living Wage and will continue to do this.  However, the freeze on the NI threshold will increase our staffing costs. As a business, we want to offer employment to local people and support the local economy but these 2 significant factors pose a real problem, increasing our overall cost and squeezing margins which are already tight.

“In the past year alone, our shipping costs have more than doubled and several stockists and producers we work with have had to close their doors.  This is something that many are seeing throughout Harlow and the surrounding area.  The confirmation of what we knew already; that we are in a recession is likely to make our customers more cautious in their spending which in turn will make it difficult to raise prices and pass on those extra costs.  This doesn’t give us an environment in which we can easily grow our business.

“Freezing business rates, although positive for many, is not the help it seems for others.  We don’t have a high street shop front because the current business rates are so high that it wouldn’t be viable, so we have to continue operating from a small office.  Without a fundamental review of the business rate system, our high streets will continue to die – you only have to look at places like the town centre to see this.”.