Schedule 17 - Capital allowances: energy-saving plant and machinery
Finance Bill
5:30 pm
Mr Michael Jack (Fylde, Conservative)
The Economic Secretary seemed at one point to challenge the idea of using of any kind of capital allowance structure in the context of leasing. She almost gave the impression that virtuous investment—in this context, for example, energy-saving combined heat and power systems—is good if one puts 100 per cent. of one's own money up front, but bad if one finances it by any other mechanism. Companies are concerned about their outgoings. A brand new start-up company in an energy-intensive business might not, in the first instance, have any profits against which it could use the capital allowance—the subject of the schedule—because it might take some years to build up enough profitability to take advantage of the scheme. However, in the context of leasing, if the capital cost of the energy-saving equipment could be lowered, so giving companies that lease such capital allowances would seem to be an advantage.