Former Labour MP who runs Fife business concerned over taxation plans

Gordon Banks has joined fellow members of the Builders Merchants Federation (BMF) to highlight its fears on the future of the building materials sector.

Mr Banks, who served as an MP for Ochil and South Perthshire from 2005 to 2015, including as a Shadow Minister for Business and then Scotland, is a director of Cartmore Building Supplies, which has its headquarters in Lochgelly.

In an extract from the letter to the Prime Minister,he said: “I appreciate you are looking for UK businesses to lead us out of the economic quagmire we have been locked in. However burdening the very businesses you need to grow the economy, with these additional tax burdens, appears to me to simply mean that your plan will fail spectacularly.”

His letter is one of a number being co-ordinated through the national trade body to alert the government to the grave concerns being felt across the UK’s building materials sector on tax proposals.

John Newcomb, chief executive, said: “Gordon’s letter is one of a number being forwarded to government from across our membership highlighting that the unintended consequences of the Budget could wipe out what it was aiming to do, which is stimulate economic growth.

“Construction is absolutely critical to the lifeblood of the UK economy, but we are hearing across the industry that the proposals in inheritance taxation, as well as the additional costs in relation to National Insurance, are likely to have a devastating impact.”

Last month the BMF supported Family Business UK’s letter to the Chancellor, calling for a formal consultation on the proposals for inheritance tax, one of 32 other trade and industry bodies, which collectively represent 160,000 UK family firms and farms.