Small Business Saturday UK is a grassroots, non-commercial campaign, which highlights small business success and encourages consumers to 'shop local' and support small businesses in their communities. Labour’s MPs will be promoting Small Business Saturday with local visits around the country, along with our Shadow Treasury and Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy teams.
Labour Policy
Labour is the party of small businesses, we understand the challenges our smaller businesses face. In order to provide the support many small businesses need a Labour government will:
- Mandate the new National Investment Banks, and regional development banks in every region, to identify where other lenders fail to meet the needs of SMEs and prioritise lending to improve the funding gap.
- Reinstate the lower small-business corporation tax rate.
- Introduce a package of reforms to business rates – including switching from RPI to CPI indexation – while reviewing the entire business rates system in the longer run.
- Scrap quarterly reporting for business with a turnover of under £85,000.
- Declare war on late payments by:
- Using government procurement to ensure that anyone bidding for a government contract pays its own suppliers within 30 days.
- Developing a version of the Australian system of binding arbitration and fines for persistent late payers for the private and public sectors.
- We will also bring forward legislation to create a proper legal definition for co-operative ownership. The National investment Bank and regional development banks will be charged with helping support our co-operative sector.
Ahead of Small Business Saturday, Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Rebecca Long-Bailey said “Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. SMEs account for 99.9 per cent of all private sector businesses and 60 per cent of all private sector employment in the UK. Their success is crucial for the success of our economy. This is why Small Business Saturday is so important to highlight the success of small businesses and to encourage consumers to use them. This is also why Labour, in its 2017 manifesto, committed to helping small businesses up and down the country.”
Policy Development
On Small Business Saturday Labour is calling for further ideas to help us build on the 2017 Manifesto pledges. Small business owners, supply chain customers and local community members, along with all our members and stakeholders are encouraged to put forward their views.
What are your views? Labour Policy Forum is our online home of policy development and ideas where you can take part in Labour's open and democratic policy-making process on this and many other issues.
Write to us with your thoughts, experiences and policy proposals to help a Labour government stand up for small businesses.
For more information on how to contribute your view to the policy process, see here: https://www.policyforum.labour.org.uk/about
Find more about Small Business Saturday UK here: https://smallbusinesssaturdayuk.com/
