Business owners may continue to feel glum about their risk to reward ratio following Budget 2023.

If cost of living pressures on households ease, increased consumer spending power will be welcome to retailers. Infrastructure repair and development, increases in public housing and private construction may stimulate demand in the construction sector and downstream industries. Recovery in tourism and hospitality, increased net migration, firmer supply chains and declining global inflation (particularly in oil and food) with lower import costs should also help.

Labour shortages and wage pressures continue though measures like extending the Apprenticeship Boost initiative to the end of 2024 will help, subsidising employers and enabling an estimated 30,000 apprentices to start or continue in key industries.

There’s still huge uncertainty. Margins are tight. You need to be able to boost productivity. Watch your cash flow, manage debtors closely and monitor your exposure to risk (especially uncontrollable risk such as subcontractors increasing pressure for retention payments or businesses failing before payments are secured).

Call us if you’d like to discuss how the current climate is affecting your business.