Labour’s plans for small business

Shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna spoke to Retail Express about Labour’s ideas for small businesses if they were to win the General Election.

Business rates

Policy: To slash business rates for properties worth up to £50,000 helping 1.5million businesses and saving an average of £400. It will be funded by reversing the Tory planned corporation tax cut that Chuka said would “only help around 88,000 businesses.”

Small business lending

Policy: The introduction of a British Investment Bank, a state-backed institution to help small businesses.

“There is a market failure in how our banks serve our small businesses and that is partly because there is a lack of competition. We have almost five million businesses using just four banks. That’s taken us down an avenue where increasingly businesses are getting the impression that they serve the bank rather than the other way around.”

Energy

Policy: Bills, such as gas and electricity, will freeze in the first 18 months of Labour being elected.

“It will save a small business many hundreds of pounds. We’ve taken on the energy companies even though people were saying to do so was an attack on enterprise. But as a country of small businesses they have a lot to say about it, because they have suffered more than most at the hand of energy price hikes.”

Living wage

Policy: Any employer that has signed up to the living wage scheme, within the first year of Labour in power, will receive a tax rebate to fund the cost.

“We are not going to have a statutory living wage, but we do want to encourage people to pay it. We understand the challenge people face in paying it and that is why we’re offering the tax
incentive.”

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