Some tax lawyers, perhaps feeling a twinge of sympathy for a time when the UK used to have manufacturing clients, are in the knocking camp but, by most City lawyers’ yardsticks, you would have to call Gordon Brown’s last Budget a result.
The ruthless, cynical but effective tactic of cutting corporation tax from 30% to 28% will clearly benefit the highly profitable, highly mobile banks and financiers that are the Square Mile’s bread and butter. Of course, small business and capital-intensive manufacturers (which are less likely to relocate abroad) will pay for most of that largesse. Fair? No, but it will probably work.
