Budget limits options for youth, says pub landlord

Geoff Sharrif has two other jobs in addition to running the White Hart pub in order to "sustain a living"

A pub landlord said the upcoming increase to the National Minimum Wage could limit job opportunities for young people entering the workforce.

Geoff Sharrif, the owner of the White Hart Pub in Hackleton, Northamptonshire, explained that the rise, announced in the Budget, will place additional financial pressure on his business.

Under the new policy, the National Minimum Wage for those aged 18 to 20 will rise from £8.60 to £10 an hour from April 2025.

Mr Sharrif said: "We employ a lot of people in their first job with no experience. So when that wage increases significantly, the worry is it will be so much harder to give them that opportunity against someone who already has that experience."

Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered the Budget yesterday to a mixed reaction

Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered Labour’s first Budget since 2010, after the party’s return to government in July’s general election.

She announced tax rises worth £40bn to fund the NHS and other public services.

Mr Sharrif added that while the Budget was “not as bad as [he] feared,” he does not expect it to immediately boost business, stating consumers would need a “huge boost in confidence” to return to pre-pandemic footfall.

The chancellor also announced that while there would continue to be no inheritance tax due on combined business and agricultural assets worth less than £1m, above that there would be a 50% relief, at an effective rate of 20%, from April 2026.

'Kick in the teeth'

For years agricultural property relief has enabled family farms – including land used for crops or rearing animals, as well as farm buildings, cottages and houses – to be handed down through the generations.

Milly Fyfe, a farmer from Yelvertoft, Northamptonshire, said that the announcement was a "real kick in the teeth for the farming community".

Ms Fyfe added: "[Farmers] are working hard to grow food to give to everybody and to have another attack thrown at us, it's a bit doom and gloom when we're already up against the wall."

Milly Fyfe thinks the government's plans for inheritance tax relief will mean more farmers will sell their land to developers

'Repairing the foundations'

Northamptonshire MPs shared mixed reactions to the Budget. Stuart Andrew, the Conservative MP for Daventry, criticised it as a plan of “broken promises” that would “ultimately hurt working people”.

Lucy Rigby, the Labour MP for Northampton North, defended the Budget as a step towards “repairing the foundations of our economy”.

She added: “The chancellor has protected household incomes... and we are putting the country on the path to prosperity.”