Growing and earning our way out of the cost of living crisis

David Cameron and George Osborne want us pat them on the back after subjecting the country to three years of a flatlining economy now that growth has returned. Any growth is welcome, but the progress being seen is down to the UK’s businesses who have weathered the storm and been determined to succeed come what may, not to a Government that has held them back.

Our task as a party and future government is to be clear about how we will do better, supporting our businesses to earn Britain’s way out of the cost of living crisis we face.

This is why Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary instigated this country’s biggest every celebration of small business with the inaugural Small Business Saturday on 7th December last year.  Small Business Saturday, a cross-party campaign of organisations and businesses, helped push almost half a billion pounds’ worth of business to our local, small, independent firms.

But beyond this Labour has spent much of this parliament outlining our plans on how we will help businesses if elected in 2015. Here’s a recap of a selection of the things we’ve been saying and doing:

1. We will freeze gas and electricity bills for 20 months which will save the average small business £5,000 and the average business £1,800.
2. We will cut and then freeze business rates in 2015 and 2016 helping 1.5 million business premises.
3. We will establish a proper British Investment Bank with a network of regional banks to ensure that small businesses can access the finance they need, and we will act to ensure they is more competition in the business lending by asking the Competition & Markets Authority to set out plans for new banks on the high street.
4. To ensure there are more job ready young people for business, we will boost apprenticeship numbers and quality, giving businesses more control over skills funding.
5. In order to build long-term cross party consensus on large infrastructure projects vital for business, we will implement the recommendations of the Armitt Review and set up an Independent Infrastructure Commission to end dither and delay in decision making.
6. Following the Government’s mistaken abolition of Regional Development Agencies, we will act to ensure Local Enterprise Partnerships have the appropriate budgets and powers to provide business support locally, as part our industrial strategy.
7. Further to our establishment of the Prompt Payment Code in Government we will get tough on late payment of small businesses and ensure Government sets an example by paying on time.
8. So entrepreneurs can get up and running more quickly we will and ask Ofcom to investigate how BT and other providers can deliver broadband within a week as standard to start-up businesses.
9. We have appointed retail champion and former CEO of Wickes, Bill Grimsey to chair our High Streets Advisory Group to advise on future opportunities for the high street – including pop-up shops and start-up spaces – building on the success of Small Business Saturday.
10. We want to help more young people get going in business which is why we asked the former MD of Innocent Drinks – Jamie Mitchell – to produce the Mitchell Report on how to support young entrepreneurs. Additionally, Jaguar Land Rover’s Executive Director, Mike Wright, is currently leading a review for Labour on how we develop the UK’s manufacturing supply chains.

I used to run a small business myself I was elected in 2010 and I know that when things are tight, you have to maintain a firm grip on the company’s finances.  To achieve the goals I’ve set out above, we acknowledge we’ll need to do the same in 2015 with the pubic finances. We will be inheriting a very difficult financial landscape from George Osborne who is forecast to borrow almost £200bn more than he planned over the course of this Parliament.

Business organisations have said paying down our debts will involve tough decisions. We agree which is why Ed Balls has already indicated that we cannot continue to pay the winter fuel allowance to the richest pensioners, we will have a cap on structural social security spending and over the long-term, as our population ages, there will need to be increases in the retirement age and, yes, we will need to reintroduce the 50p rate of tax in the next parliament to bring the current budget back into surplus.

That said, in spite of these challenges, we remain confident about the UK’s businesses capacity and determination to innovate, buck the trend and take on the world, helping secure more fairness at home and enabling Britain to pay its way abroad. Labour will be right behind them.

Toby Perkins is Labour’s Shadow Minister for Small Business and MP for Chesterfield