As the dust settled on the first Conservative Budget for 19 years, along with other Business Experts I added my thoughts to the Sage UK Business Blog.

Here’s what I had to say:

“The Government has set out on a course which will squeeze those starting out in employment as well as hamper growth of SMEs.

“The push towards vocational training and confirmation of 3 million new apprenticeships will again provide only a short term solution as demand for jobs on qualification continues to rise. Incentives to go into Higher Education (once a Labour standard) have been all but cut and the proposed (if confusing) new £7.20 ‘national living wage’ will only apply to those aged over 25.

“For small businesses and entrepreneurs, the impact of increased wages (however the new ‘living wage’ may be introduced and enforced) as a way to fill a benefits void may limit future growth. The threat of an increased wage to £9/hour by 2020 may also see some resistance, in spite of a National Insurance employment allowance for small firms increasing by 50% (to £3,000) from 2016.”

photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/56087830@N00/4472549459″>C4 Chancellor’s Debate</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a&gt; <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/”>(license)</a&gt;