Budget 2012: Enterprise zones get added tax relief
Author: John Geoghegan, Planning Magazine |
Enterprise zones in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and London will benefit from enhanced tax reliefs, the chancellor George Osborne has confirmed in his budget speech.
In his statement the chancellor said: “(I) can confirm today that we will offer enhanced capital allowances for businesses starting up in the new Scottish enterprise areas in Dundee, Irvine and Nigg and there will be a new Welsh Enterprise Zone in Deeside, while we look forward to the first Enterprise Zone in Northern Ireland”. Capital allowance is a form of tax relief for businesses.
The new enterprise zone in Northern Ireland, the location of which not been revealed, will be the province’s first.
The Welsh one, at Deeside, was one of five announced last September by the Welsh government which were followed by two more announced in February.
Along with the Scottish and Welsh enterprise zones, the chancellor said the enhanced capital allowances will be available in the Royal Docks enterprise zone in London, all starting on April 1.
Speaking earlier in the House of Commons, he said: “The mayor [Boris Johnson] has persuaded me of the opportunities the new Royal Docks Enterprise Zone offers our largest city if we offer enhanced capital allowances there ? so we will.
He added: “Enterprise zones are now going ahead, across England. Chinese investment pouring into the zone in Liverpool.
“The Marches zone in the West Midlands is already expanding. I want other parts of the United Kingdom to benefit from these policies.”
In the HM Treasury Budget 2012 paper, it said the capital allowances move in the Royal Docks zone could deliver 7,500 jobs while those in Scotland and Wales could provide more than 9,000 in total.
Alexandra Jones, chief executive of think tank the Centre for Cities, said: “Enterprise zones are being expanded ? there will be more in Northern Ireland and Wales, and London’s Royal Docks will have enhanced capital allowances.
“But lessons from the 1980s are that the jury is out on what they will deliver, and whether new jobs will be created or simply displaced from elsewhere.”