An antiques expert famous for his appearances on the BBC daytime staple Bargain Hunt has shared his honest opinions on the chancellor’s Budget – exclusively with GBN members.
Jonathan Pratt, the Managing Director at Dawsons Auctions and familiar face on the Beeb’s antiques shows, is no stranger to having to adapt to ever-changing and tumultuous financial climates that have hit his businesses over the years and last week’s Budget is no different.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves outlined in the Commons last week Labour’s plans to generate a staggering £70billion in spending each year for the next five years.
Almost half of this figure is set to be funded by tax increases, with one such measure impacting business owners directly thanks to Labour’s rise of National Insurance.
The NI rise for employers is tipped to rake in £20bn a year and means that, from April 2025, employers will have to pay NI at 15 percent on salaries above £5,000, rather than the 13.8 percent on salaries above £9,100 currently.
New Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has criticised the move, and Pratt, whose team at Dawsons budgeted for the increase, has suggested people and business owners may need to look for more golden opportunities to recoup their funds.
Jonathan Pratt (right) is a familiar face on the BBC’s Bargain Hunt
BBC
“The funny thing about the auction businesses is they’re counter cyclical,” Pratt began when asked about the impact Reeves’s budget may have on his business. “So (after the 2008 housing crash), people began investing in artworks, jewellery, even the classic car market started to climb at that point as well.
“And the market that was really hit was that sort of higher wealth, people who were sitting on Monets and that sort of thing. For a short period, people had loans and guarantees on paintings, and they could never get the prices (and) these paintings were just sitting on their inventory.
“The market corrected itself immediately, overnight, through a shortfall of demand, but it really was up there.
“Second time around was COVID. COVID caused a huge spike in the market. The housing market and the auction business used to be tied very closely, so when the housing market goes up, there’s often an interest in furniture, furnishings and all those things.
Rachel Reeves hiked up NI for employers across the country
PA
“So we found there was a massive increase of demand in antique furniture, home furnishings, oriental carpets, all those sorts of things… artworks, everything was selling around the country. And I had a huge growth of my business when we, at that time, had to all go online.”
Addressing the Budget specifically, he continued: “With this Budget… the impact on the company is more direct.
“It’s going to hit us about £30,000 in NI in employers’ contributions.
“There was (also) a 75 percent discount on property rates, and it’s now dropped to 40 percent or 30 percent whatever it is,” Pratt said. “We had budgeted for that.”
But there is one area of dealing that Pratt predicts could flourish amid the uncertainty sparked by Reeves and her red box.
“The impact on people? Look, the gold prices at the moment are so high. You’re talking £2,000 an ounce. That equates to (approximately) £40-45 pounds at auction per gram for 18-karat gold. It’s £50 nearly for 18-karat gold at auction. That’s huge,” Pratt reeled off.
“The gold market rising, in some respects, is impacting us because you can’t sell an Omega gold watch anymore because the scraps are worth more than the watch is worth. And so people will just go scrapping the whole thing, so there’s a lot of scrap. There’ll be a lot more scrapping going on.
“But with uncertainty, there’s more investment in tangible objects again. Will people run out of money? Well, they don’t really.
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Jonathan Pratt is the Managing Director at Dawsons Auctions
BBC
“The thing is, people want to liquidate. So when they need money, they need to liquidate. And auctions are a place that liquidates for them. We work as an agent and our job is to get the best prices we possibly can for people.
“We sit with people who are in that middle income, that sort of higher wealth. Most of the people buying with us are going to be in the top one or two percent because if someone’s going to spend £5,000 on a ring or £5,000 on a painting, it’s more disposable income than I’ve got and they don’t tend to get affected so much.
“It’s a difficult one. I think we probably won’t see much difference, but the general auction business around the country, people who are selling stuff from £50 to £500, (might).
“I mean, people will need to liquidate. (Auctions) are built on death, debt, and divorce; what people call the three Ds. People keep dying, people keep divorcing and people need to liquidate when there’s debt, and then objects always find their price, don’t they, because that’s what auctions are about.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves shared the Budget on Wednesday last week
GB NEWS
Away from life in the auction house, Pratt also spoke to GB News all about a rather contrasting career venture he’s about to embark upon.
Pratt is gearing up for a stint on-stage as part of the cast of Winchester Musicals and Opera Society’s production of Kiss Me Kate.
“It’s funny, really. The thing is, auction is theatre. Being a good auctioneer is understanding how to work a room, how to work with people,” he said when discussing the new role.
“You’ve got to entertain. You need to keep attention whilst trying to essentially take money from them for the objects you’re selling. So a good auctioneer is always worth his money. In a live auction, I firmly believe a good auctioneer will take 20 percent more than a bad one for their clients. And there are lots of different ways of doing things as an auctioneer.
“But why did I choose this path? Well, I’ve got four kids, and my youngest daughter wants to be an actress. They all went through the village school and then I said to my wife, ‘We know all the parents in the village, but we don’t know anyone else.
“I’d like to meet other people in the village, rather than just the parents of the children’. And Esme wants to be an actress so I said, ‘Well, you’ve got to do some plays’.”
Before long, Pratt and his children found themselves auditioning for local plays and before he knew it, the roles kept on coming, resulting in his latest at the Theatre Royal in Winchester.
Tickets for Kiss Me Kate are available to purchase here: https://www.wmos.org.uk/kiss-me-kate