‘A vote of confidence’: UK businesses welcome Jeremy Hunt’s tax breaks

Richard Hagan, managing director of Crystal Doors in Rochdale, said the tax breaks felt like ‘a lifeline for the successful’. Photograph: Richard Saker/The Guardian

British manufacturers have welcomed Jeremy Hunt’s announcement of permanent tax breaks for investment as the government tries to spur lagging UK productivity after years in the doldrums in its autumn statement.

The chancellor said the tax break, worth £11bn a year by 2028-29, was the “largest business tax cut in modern British history” as he made permanent “full expensing” one of the key growth-boosting measures in Wednesday’s autumn statement.