Small businesses play a vital and often unsung role in our society.
From being there when you need a local shop, a haircut or when you want to relax with a good coffee in snug local café: small businesses form the beating heart of our communities across the country. They are also vital to our economy, employing more than 15.7 million people and having a combined annual turnover of £1.8 trillion. Without small businesses our high streets and shopping arcades would be soulless, pale shadows of what they are today. It is so important for the environment and employment to have the local jobs that small businesses create.
Small businesses have made tremendous efforts during the current crisis, from helping manufacture PPE and ventilators to offering free school meals to children during holidays, they have been there for us.
The success of small businesses has also been threatened by COVID-19 over the past year, with as many as 390,000 worried that they won’t survive past spring if the economic situation does not improve or the level of support increase. The VAT reduction and business rates holiday must both continue until the end of the year.
As a party that believes in community the Labour Party is fully committed to supporting small businesses through this crisis.
Small businesses enrich all of our lives through the services and support they provide; we cannot allow them to fail.
Fleur Anderson
Labour Member of Parliament for Putney, Roehampton and Southfields
Shadow Cabinet Office Minister