We spoke to a range of people about what they thought of the announcements in the autumn statement.
The self-employed Deliveroo rider: ‘We’re low paid and most people are on or around that borderline of the tax-free threshold’
Ben Geraghty, 24, is a rider for food delivery company Deliveroo in London and also helps train new staff as a safety assessor. He earns about £8.70 an hour and has worked for the firm for more than a year; he used to work between 35 and 40 hours a week but has reduced his hours in recent months.
He has recently become more involved in helping other Deliveroo drivers to unionise after they went on strike in search of better pay and conditions. Currently classed as self-employed, Geraghty and some of his fellow drivers are battling to be recognised as workers.
Geraghty says he and his fellow Deliveroo workers were on high alert for any hint from the chancellor on how the government intends to treat workers in the gig economy. Former Tony Blair aide Matthew Taylor has been asked by the government to look into the status of gig economy workers, amid legal battles over whether they are considered self-employed.
But any hopes of an update on the government’s thinking were dashed. “An idea of what the political class thinks regarding that would have been interesting to us,” said Geraghty. “It might be popular for them to criticise Deliveroo and Uber, but it’s difficult for them because if they go ahead with Brexit, companies like that will be the sort they’ll want to attract.”
His disappointment was tempered by the announcement of an increase in the tax-free personal allowance to £11,500. “For Deliveroo drivers it is good if there is a larger amount of money untaxed,” he said. “We’re low paid and most people are on or around that borderline of the tax-free threshold.”
Geraghty said the time that riders who use motorbikes or mopeds spend on the road means petrol is a large proportion of their annual outgoings, so the seventh successive fuel duty freeze was also greeted warmly. “Anything for people who have to spend money on petrol is positive,” Geraghty said.
The nature of Deliveroo drivers’ job means they are also regular road users, so Geraghty is pleased that there will be more money for road improvements. “The roads in London are not good, especially if you’re a cyclist so we definitely support that 100%,” he said. “Improvements to the roads might just make maintenance of bikes a bit easier if there are fewer potholes.”
However, he is sceptical about whether it do much to improve the long-term prospects for him and fellow drivers. “In reality, Deliveroo drivers and people working in the gig economy are not going to be looking at the autumn statement,” he said. “They’re being squeezed anyway and they’ll continue to be squeezed.”
The Rafiq family: ‘Childcare should have been made free for all working parents – except if they’re millionaires’
Aerospace engineer Muhammad Rafiq, 46, was glad to hear the government will open up public grants to developers who want to build homes to let at “affordable” rents – defined as up to 80% of the full market rate.
He and his 36-year-old wife, Maria, have a household income of £35,000 and rent a newly built affordable home they are planning to buy in Plymouth. They moved there with their three-year-old daughter, Minsa, earlier this year after applying to join the Rentplus rent-to-buy housing scheme.
“It’s a good scheme and I recommend it,” says Rafiq. “Without it, I don’t think we’d ever be able to buy a house.”
The family will pay at least 20% below the market rent for the next five years and will receive a 10% gifted deposit from Rentplus to buy their home at the end of their five-year tenancy.
“We used to rent a two-bed flat for £620,” says Rafiq. “Now we rent a two-bed house for £545. We’re saving the money we would have spent on rent every month, and it already feels like we are looking after our own house.”
He was unhappy about other aspects of the autumn statement, however, such as the insurance premium tax hike from 10% to 12%. “I’m worried about inflation, so a tax hike is bad news. I’m also disappointed the chancellor is only choosing to raise the personal allowance by £500 next April [to £11,500] and to £12,500 by the end of the parliament. At the moment, on a salary of £35,000, you can hardly meet your expenses if you have a child.”
As an observant Muslim, he avoids interest-paying savings accounts, so instead of the proposed 2.2% government-backed savings bond, he would have liked to see income tax breaks for basic-rate taxpayers who make charitable donations. “Giving to charity is an obligation for Muslims – I donate 2.5% of my wealth to charity as zakat [charitable giving] each year.”
He doesn’t believe the government has done enough to help working families. “My wife is a schoolteacher by profession but she doesn’t work because if she put our daughter in nursery, her entire salary would go on childcare. Childcare should have been made free for all working parents – except if they’re millionaires.”
The history teacher: ‘Banning letting agent fees is just tinkering round the edges’
The government has failed to deliver on its promise to help “just about managing” households, says 34-year-old history teacher Robert Behan – one of the thousands of public sector workers priced out of the housing market in London.
He earns £33,000 while his wife, Alisa, a part-time receptionist, earns £14,000. They spend £157 a week on childcare for their two-year-old son, Sean, and pay £1,100 a month – more than Alisa’s entire take-home pay – to rent a one-bedroom flat in Leyton, east London.
“The housing market in London is out of control,” Behan says. “An affordable rent – where you pay up to 80% of the market rent – is still not affordable in London, and banning letting agent fees is just tinkering round the edges. The government should have opened a national investment bank to fund a huge housebuilding programme. That’s what I’d have liked to see – some kind of revolution to tackle the housing crisis.”
Behan cycles to work to save money, so the fuel duty freeze will not help him. “I’m disappointed about the lack of environmental measures. The government should have announced carbon taxes or incentives to switch away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy providers. I’d also have liked to see more taxes being placed on the super-rich.”
The proposed National Savings & Investments savings bond with a 2.2% interestrate won’t help him either. “We have no savings – we can’t afford to save. We live pay cheque to pay cheque.”
He says if he had been chancellor, he would have recalibrated the London weighting for public sector workers to take account of house price inflation over the past 15 years and the increased cost of renting.
“Politicians in Westminster don’t have a clue about how the housing market is affecting people. I go into my overdraft at the end of every month. It weighs heavily on my mind.”
The co-founder of a boat building firm in County Down: £250m for the Northern Ireland executive is ‘hopefully good news for Kilkeel’
A boat-building company on Northern Ireland’s County Down coast believes the extra £250m given to Stormont has boosted the chances of extending the local harbour and creating an extra 300 jobs.
Sea Source, a co-operative business in Kilkeel, has already been lobbying for £36m from the power sharing executive in Belfast to expand the harbour for bigger boats. The chancellor’s announcement of a further £250m for the Northern Ireland executive has increased the company’s optimism.
Davy Hill, one of the co-founders of the enterprise alongside David Campbell, a fisherman and member of the co-operative, said the increase was “hopefully good news for Kilkeel”.
Hill says their plans to increase the harbour’s capacity had already been approved by the Northern Ireland’s strategic investment board. All that was missing until the autumn statement was the extra cash from central government to the regional administration, Hill adds.
“At present we are restricted in the size of boats we can bring into Kilkeel not only to land larger fish catches but also to come in for repairs by our marine engineering unit. If we get that expansion that opens new opportunities for us, creates 300 jobs and secures fishing in the County Down region for the next hundred years.”
He said that one local fishing entrepreneur in the county has built a £30m boat that he cannot sail into Kilkeel at present.
“If some of that £250m is given to us to increase the size of our harbour he has promised us he will take the boat into Kilkeel with his fishing catches. We had the local finance minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir down here for dinner last week and he supported our project. Now that Philip Hammond has given the Northern Ireland executive extra cash we hope they fulfil that promise and help us to turn our harbour into a marine industrial hub for the future,” Hill adds.
Hill co-founded Sea Source with Alan McCullan and they have created 900 jobs over the past three years. The Sea Source co-operative covers boat building and repair, offshore boat services for energy projects and fish processing.
The Sherman family: ‘We are not managing – we don’t know what is around the corner’
There was nothing in the autumn statement to make things easier for Rachel Sherman, a mother-of-four in Birmingham. Her family was hit this month by the lowering of the overall benefit cap, which means her housing benefit payments have dropped from about £640 a month to just £2.
She starts a new job this week in a furniture shop, but has only been allocated eight hours’ work, which is not enough to exempt her from the benefit cap. She and her husband – who is recovering from a heart attack – continue to look for other work, but have struggled to find full-time posts. She interviewed for a second job with the retailer Foot Locker on Tuesday, but only four hours’ work a week was on offer, leaving her wondering if she will have to take three jobs in parallel to meet the rent.
“I could juggle three jobs, but you would have to fit each and every job around each other,” she says. “Whether that would be feasible or not, I don’t know.”
Sherman was doing her voluntary job with veterinary charity the PDSA when the chancellor delivered his statement, but looking at the online summary later she could see nothing that might help her situation. “They froze the fuel duty, but we don’t have a car, so that doesn’t affect us at all.” While there were measures to help savers, she said: “We can’t live on the amount we have – if we can’t afford to live, we can’t afford to save.”
She intends to apply for discretionary housing payments to help meet the rent shortfall while she tries to increase her working hours. If this is refused, she thinks the family could face eviction and homelessness.
Sherman recently wrote a list of all the food there is in the cupboards and freezer so she could work out exactly how many meals for six she still has available. “We’re having to use everything that is there to put together meals for the family.”
She would not classify her household as a “just about managing” family. “We are not managing – we don’t know what is around the corner. We are having to manage because we have no choice, but at the same time we are struggling to heat our house and feed our family. This is in no way, shape or form helping our situation.
“My husband and I are trying to get jobs – both of us are doing voluntary work. I am very, very grateful for the small job I have. We are not sat on our bums doing nothing – we are trying to do everything we can. The government is leaving families like ours to struggle. I don’t feel they are doing enough to help. They are taking away from families who need support and leaving us almost in the gutter.”
Rowan Crozier, CEO: ‘Politicians need to get their act together and tell people what the plan is’
Rowan Crozier is on the frontline when it comes to all the Brexit uncertainty that economists warn will hit growth next year.
His Birmingham-based manufacturer exports around the world, making connectors for 80% of the world’s kettles. About 70% of its £7m turnover comes from exports, with China and the US its biggest markets.
Like other exporters Brandauer has seen an effect from the weaker pound since the Brexit vote, with some overseas clients attracted by its more competitive pricing. But chief executive Crozier also worries about his costs going up because of the weaker currency.
Stainless steel suppliers have talked about charging more and Brandauer could also see a hit from pricier precious metals. A lot of the components it makes are coated in silver and gold and those metals have gone up this year as a mood of global uncertainty has lifted demand for safe haven investments.
Crozier’s company is being careful on spending and hiring, he says. His biggest worry is how the UK’s lack of a Brexit plan is being viewed by clients.
“People are just waiting to see what happens and what the plan is,” says Crozier, whose firm employs 57 people.
“People are placing orders a bit later. It used to be eight to 12 weeks in advance, now it tends to be half that.”
The government’s independent forecasters expect a slowdown in business spending to be a key factor behind weaker economic growth next year. Crozier says his experience underscores that gloomier outlook.
“Our customers are slowing their decision-making, their customers are doing the same and we are doing the same. People aren’t reversing decisions but there is a mood of cautiousness.”
Some of the measures in the autumn statement, such as a new productivity fund, were helpful to business in Crozier’s eyes, and he welcomed plans to cut corporation tax to 17% as making the UK a more attractive destination for foreign firms.
But the Birmingham businessman really wants from government is clarity on the Brexit process.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s hard Brexit or soft Brexit. People are getting to the point where they just need to know,” he says.
But he remains hopeful things will improve for the 154-year-old firm after a recent slowdown. “Growth should come back in 2017 as confidence builds but that will only happen if politicians get their act together and clearly tell people what the plan is.”
• This article was amended on 24 November 2016. An earlier version described Ben Geraghty as a “driver” and “moped-rider” for Deliveroo and included inaccurate information about the company’s reimbursement of fuel costs.
