Responding to the Monetary Policy Committee’s decision to hold the Bank of England base rate at 4%, Muniya Barua, Deputy Chief Executive at BusinessLDN, said:
“The cost of borrowing is an added worry for many firms as mounting speculation around the Budget has caused many to hit pause on hiring and investment.
“The Chancellor’s priority must be to do no harm to growth, so she should ditch misguided proposals for a new levy on international students and rethink reforms to the landfill tax that would add to the cost of new flats in London.
“Any fiscal wriggle room should be used to knock down barriers to growth, such as cutting stamp duty on shares to boost London’s capital markets and scrapping the sales tax on overseas visitors that is hitting our tourist trade.”