Chancellor George Osborne is delivering his Autumn Statement to the nation tomorrow.

We've asked local business people and organisations what they would like to see him say...

Guy Jones, NatWest's director of commercial banking for Cardiff and east Wales

It must be recognised that the longer term priority for the Chancellor is to manage the UK Government debt position, which according to ONS figures is £1,521.2bn, or 87.8 per cent of GDP. This costs the UK nearly £1bn of interest every week, which will increase even more when interest rates rise. As opposed to the austerity measures seen across Europe, economic growth and hence increased taxation flows must continue to remain our strategy, so benefitting the UK and local economies. Business growth is central to this strategy and I'd like to see further support for :

• Entrepreneurial high growth businesses. NatWest is already supporting these with initiatives such as E-Spark, which will see the launch of an accelerator hub in South East Wales during 2015 offering workspace, hands-on mentoring, a start up ‘boot camp’ and a free programme of up to 18-months that includes advice, support and funding clinics.

• The UK Apprenticeship programme, to harness fresh new talent, help businesses with a very real skills gap and positively address long-term employment prospects.

• Our manufacturing sector - helping businesses that make things which we can then, with continued focus on exporting support, sell to the rest of the world.

• Levelling the business taxation playing field between global corporations seemingly paying very little and the rest of the UK SME population.

• Energy efficiency within business to offset the long term risks of both climate change and energy cost inflation.

• Reducing red tape and bureaucracy.

Dan Smith, M4 Property Consultants, Newport

We are finding business confidence is improving locally. However, the one issue that we see with a lot of new or smaller businesses is the uncertainty about small business relief, which provides a exemption or discount to properties with a rateable value under £12,000, subject to criteria. At the moment the scheme is only confirmed until March 31, 2015. We would like the chancellor to provide greater clarity around this and commit to provide the current level of support through small business relief until 2018. By doing this, businesses would have much greater certainty of costs which will help them make decisions about commercial property.

Paul Byett, managing partner of UHY Hacker Young, Newport

In recent years the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement has been used as a sounding board for the upcoming budget, and as we enter an election year I’m expecting more of the same. If we are to receive pre-election promises, their focus must be on supporting SME growth. Ideally, this will be facilitated by an extension to the annual investment allowance of £500,000 past December 2015. There must also be a commitment to supporting UK innovation; for example, expanding the remit of the ‘Patent Box’ to allow more UK businesses to pay lower tax on profits derived from inventions they patented. Focussing closer to home, we would also like to see a Southern Newport Enterprise Zone (SNEZ) with tax breaks for digital innovation businesses.