The Chancellor didn't have much room for manoeuvre this year but has made a number of helpful interventions. The BPIF welcomes the following announcements:

- New export credits for smaller businesses – helps companies looking to build overseas trade

- Establishment of new Centres for high value manufacturing and innovative manufacturing – we must continue to stress print's role as an advanced manufacturing sector with a high GVA to turnover ratio

- Increase in small companies R&D credit to 200% from April (and to 225% next year

- Doubling of limit on capital allowances for short-life assets from four years to eight year – helps print companies looking to invest in new kit, which according to Printing Outlook nearly all of them are

- Establishment of the first 1`0 enterprise zones - most are areas where there is a high concentration of printing firms

- Extension of Climate Change Agreements to 2023 and increase in CCA levy discount for those who sign up from 65% to 80% (from 2013) – this will help the more energy-intensive companies that are members of the Sector CCA that BPIF manages (the 13th largest out of 54 such schemes). CCAs have been under review and earlier this year we had voiced concern to DECC that the loss of the climate change levy rebate it provides would be bad news for the profitability of the 240 companies on our scheme, most of whom are in internationally-competitive sectors such as books, magazines and cartons. The companies covered by the printing sector CCA have between them have some 44% of the total turnover of the UK printing industry between them

- Funding for another 40.000 apprenticeships and 10,000 higher level apprenticeships – good news for companies seeking to invest in skills

- Three-year moratorium on new regulation for businesses employing less than 10 people – saves time and money for firms with very limited management resources. Helps more than half of our industry

- Cancellation of the fuel duty escalator for rest of this Parliament and cut in fuel duty by 1p per litre – good news for print, given that nearly all of it is distributed by road, (and should help paper merchants hold down their costs a bit too!)