00:00And for 2.3 million of our lowest paid workers, I'm increasing both the national minimum wage
00:05and the national living wage by 3.9%.
00:09Well, there you have it. This year's autumn budget has just been announced and many business
00:14owners are not happy.
00:16While they understand the need for minimum and living wage increases, owners across Kent
00:21are concerned about keeping their businesses afloat. Despite the business rates threshold
00:27rising to £18,000, meaning an extra 70,000 businesses will be exempt.
00:33I want to pay my carers more, so the rise of the national minimum wage is great, but there
00:39was nothing for small providers' relief. Like for us as care providers, we run on a very,
00:45very low margin, but there was no budget for social care at all. I don't know, I don't
00:50have words for it, like, you know, like how to describe my dissatisfaction with this budget.
00:55Do you almost, as a small business centre, feel dismissed or forgotten about?
00:59Yeah, completely, completely dismissed, completely forgotten.
01:03We saw the national minimum wage be increased and it's just putting up the cost of employing
01:08people and if the government was serious about supporting young people back into work, it
01:13would create more incentives for businesses to actually go out there and employ young people.
01:17Building up to it, it was all about small businesses. And so the word was used a lot, but I
01:23couldn't
01:23see any policy or measures that actually specifically supported small business owners.
01:29For businesses across Kent, this year's autumn budget has left many feeling unsupported as
01:35they question how they'll keep going this time.
01:38Maisie Walker for KMTV in Ebbsleet.
