Small businesses receive support to grow
NEW measures have been announced to help small businesses in Yorkshire and the Humber grow and create jobs.
Across Yorkshire and the Humber, small businesses represent 44% of private sector employment, with more than 350,000 small businesses employing 858,000 people.
Small Business: GREAT Ambition sets out how Government can make it easier for small businesses to grow as the country got behind local traders this weekend on Small Business Saturday.
These new measures, set out by enterprise minister Matt Hancock, are designed to remove some of the barriers small businesses face, improve the business environment and make it easier for them to fulfil their potential.
The announcements and commitments include an agreement with the energy firms to end auto-rollovers for business customers, limit back billing, increase transparency of contract terms and make switching easier; access to £230bn of public sector contracts (implementing Lord Young’s recommendations, which were accepted by the Prime Minister in May, to make it easier and simpler for small firms to win public sector business) and tackling late payment of small firms.
The news follows a package of support in the Autumn Statement for small businesses, which included an extension of the doubling of Small Business Rate Relief to March 2015, a business rates discount of up to £1,000 for retail premises with a rateable value up to £50,000 and making it cheaper to employ staff aged under-21.
Business secretary, Vince Cable, said: “I meet with small businesses regularly who tell me about what Government support works well and what doesn’t. Through our commitment to small firms we are directly addressing that feedback, freeing them from unnecessary burdens, providing more finance and improving access to advice and support.
“In particular we are tackling the issue of late payment, which can threaten the survival of otherwise healthy businesses. We are enforcing prompt payment through the entire public sector and asking what more we can do to get credit flowing in the private sector.”
Enterprise and skills minister, Matthew Hancock, added: “Small businesses are the lifeblood of the British economy and responsible for nearly half the job creation in the UK. That’s why we are removing barriers to growth and supporting them, so that they can create jobs and compete in the global race.”
