Summary

  • Get in touch: bizlivepage@bbc.co.uk

  • FTSE 100 closes at its lowest level for more than a week

  • Crude oil prices have continued to fall on record US stocks

  • Chancellor defends National Insurance move

  • Shadow Chancellor: 'Angry about budget'

  • UK heading for 15 years of lost pay growth - report

  • Co-op Bank reports £477m annual loss

Live Reporting

Karen Hoggan

  1. 'No rethink on National Insurance rises'

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  2. Most Asian markets lower as US rate hike nears

    US Federal Reserve buildingReuters

    Many Asian markets traded lower, as strong US jobs data overnight reinforced expectations of a rate hike at next week's US Federal Reserve meeting. 

    China's Shanghai Composite edged lower by 0.9% while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong shed 1.3%. 

    But the Nikkei in Tokyo bucked the downtrend. Japan's benchmark index rose 0.3% as a drop in the yen boosted buying in shares of exporters. 

  3. Public finances 'getting into the zone'

    Today Programme
    BBC Radio 4

    Andrew Sentance

    He [the Chancellor] is getting the deficit down to about £20bn that's about 1% of GDP, it started off as about 10% of GDP, so he's getting it into the zone where public finances are sustainable," says Andrew Sentance, senior economic adviser to PwC and a former member of the panel that sets interest rates at the Bank of England.

    "He's dangling the carrot out, that in the next parliament, we will move into surplus, but whether we do or not I think still remains to be seen," he said.

  4. Taxing the digital economy

    Today Programme
    BBC Radio 4

    The government announced a review of have we tax the digital economy. 

    "It's a very slippery problem," says Margaret Doyle, a parner at accountacy firm Deloitte.

    "Not least because a lot of the digital economy services appear to be free. In other words, for the consumer, whether we search online, social media, we do not appear to pay... so it makes it difficult to tax those transactions."

    "This is not going to be something where there is an overnight fix," Ms Doyle said.

  5. 'Start-ups might be discouraged'

    Today Programme
    BBC Radio 4

    The cut in tax-free dividend allowances from £5,000 to £2,000 may take-away an incentive for start-up entrepreneurs says Stephen Kelly, the chief executive of Sage.

    "I do think that will be a barrier, to make them think do I want to take the risk?Do I want to worry about cash flow, do I want to worry about all the things associated with working a 70-hour week, or do I want a safe option and go to work for someone else," he says.

  6. Small business 'feeling badly let-down'

    Today Programme
    BBC Radio 4

    Stephen Kelly is the chief executive of the FTSE 100 technology company Sage. He is not impressed by the Chancellor's decision to raise tax on the self-employed.

    "The Chancellor says he has confounded the experts in terms of the strength and the resilience of the economy and that's largely largely down to the success of the job creation of the small and medium businesses.

    "They've created two-thirds of the jobs and fundamentally they'll wake up this morning feeling badly let down because... they've had a triple whammy of tax increases on national insurance, on dividend income and business rates, which is ultimately a completely absurd tax - a Shakespearean tax in the digital age. It [business rates] is madness."

  7. Business rates 'a heck of a lot of money'

    BBC Radio 5 live

    The tax system in the UK is "one of the most centralised... in the developed world" with taxes controlled by the Treasury, and local government expected to deliver services, says Adam Marshall of the British Chambers of Commerce.

    The Treasury is "trying to take £25bn a year in property taxes off of businesses," he says.

    "That's a heck of a lot of money, and what it means is that a lot of companies aren't out there investing in their growth because they are too worried about how much upfront tax they'll be paying."

    He adds that a lot of local government spending on services doesn't directly benefit businesses.

  8. Business rates 'a really heavy property tax'

    BBC Radio 5 live

    The Budget set aside £435m for firms affected by increases in business rates, including £300m hardship fund for worst hit.

    Adam Marshall, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, says it is "a significant sum of money but it really only helps in the short term".

    "The business rates system remains unreformed, it remains a really heavy property tax that falls on businesses, regardless of how much money they are making, and of course they have to pay it before they turn over a single pound."

  9. Good morning

    Expect plenty of Budget reaction today. Chancellor Philip Hammond has a brace of interviews  this morning, and the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) will present its analysis of the public finances this afternoon.

    On the business front, supermarket chain Morrisons will report its full year results, and so too will John Lewis Partnership, which includes the department stores and Waitrose.