The NOA has commented on George Osborne’s budget as he unveiled tax cuts to lure major companies to London and promote growth through boosting enterprise.

The Chancellor announced a blitz on red tape and a reduction in the cost of doing business in the UK.

The budget includes cutting corporation tax by an extra penny. Combined with previously planned cuts that means a 2p cut on April 6 from 28p to 26p in the £, falling to just 23p in 2014/15, 11p less than France and 7p lower than Germany. A low rate of corporation tax of just 5.75 per cent will also be used to lure major multinationals who are especially welcome in the UK.

Andy Rogers and Bharat Vagadia, the National Outsourcing Association (NOA), commented: “The National Outsourcing Association welcomes the Chancellor’s budget, and in particular the commitment made to boosting enterprise in this country. New measures, including an increase in Income Tax relief on the Enterprise Investment Scheme, and the introduction of a new Enterprise Capital Growth Fund which will provide more than £37.5 million of equity finance to SMEs, are clearly aimed at easing the burden on SMEs.

“It’s clear that those looking for Mr Osborne to scrap the measures introduced after last year’s Spending review were always likely to be disappointed by today’s announcement. However, it’s clear that the government is looking to make good on its recent pledge to attack what the Prime Minister calls the ‘enemies of enterprise’ and by offering support to British entrepreneurs, it’s clearly good news for those looking for a more diverse range of outsourcing suppliers, and not just those able to offer the fattest contracts.

”Indeed, today’s budget announcement should ensure that the pool of smaller suppliers able to take a slice of the public sector pie will become even deeper, which perhaps signals a commitment from the government towards a rise in multi-sourcing.

“With this in mind, perhaps it’s a surprise that we’ve seen no pledge from the government in terms of training those in the public sector to deal with this rise? Very few workers in the public sector will have any experience of how to manage a number of different suppliers effectively, so perhaps it would have been a good move for the government to set aside some budget towards training public sector workers in this respect? Given the expected rise in more outsourcing, more private sector engagement within the public sector, and the likely scaling back of the public sector workforce, it would have made sense to invest more in training to make this workforce increasingly mobile.

“This investment in training might even have been expanded to further support smaller enterprises, which have no real experience in dealing with contracts. Another way the Chancellor could have demonstrated this commitment to enterprise is to introduce incentives to smaller organisations looking to bid for public sector contracts, perhaps by making the bidding process itself tax deductible.”