Would you trust someone to repair a leak in your home if they had no practical experience or qualifications? Or fit new brakes to your car, or even educate your children. So why are a bunch of people who have no experience running a business essentially deciding the fate of the nation’s five million SMEs?
Anyone who’s seen me on radio or TV or follows me on X will know I’m no fan of this Labour government and think they’re going the right way of flushing the country and its economy down the kharzi. October’s budget was the most harrowing in all my working years. I was expecting businesses to get a good kicking from the Chancellor and, sadly, she didn’t disappoint.
Capital Gain Tax up, wages up, and the cherry on top, about 500 quid per employee on National Insurance. They seem to forget that British SMEs make up 99 percent of UK businesses and are the backbone of the economy. Tear out the spine of the nation and it will simply crumble. Promising money for health, education, bombs and guns, but battering the machine that makes the money.
I know I’m not the only one saying this. I’m not a big user of LinkedIn, but a quick scroll will turn up plenty of posts from small business owners tearing their hair out at the impending regulations and taxes that will weigh heavy on their firms. And while you would expect most SME owners and entrepreneurs to share the trepidation, concern over the impact of the workers’ rights changes is also being voiced from within the government machine.
According to a government impact assessment small businesses would be disproportionately hit by Labour’s workers’ package with companies likely to react by putting up prices and cutting jobs. How is that supposed to help hard working people when the things they’ll buy will cost them or, worse, leave them without a job and a burden on the state?
The deputy prime minister Angela Rayner says the government was listening to business concerns, but so far, they’re falling on deaf ears. Perhaps they’ll pay more attention to the civil service pen pushers who’ve run the numbers and seen a horrible future for British SMEs. I doubt it.
It seems the voices of opposition (from business and not from the opposite benches in the House of Commons) are growing louder. Plus, they are coming from credible sources. Before the Budget the Federation of Small Businesses – the UK’s largest employers’ lobbying group, said that entrepreneurial activity could grind to a halt if a capital gains tax relief that benefits business owners is scrapped.
Rachel Reeves said she was working with the FSB, but clearly didn’t listen when it came to CGT. This also brings me back to the argument about Labour’s attack on ‘the rich’. These business owners are rarely landed gentry or silver spooned-second generationers.
They’re, as FSB policy chairwoman Tina Mckenzie correctly points out, ‘car mechanics, restaurant owners, jewellery designers’ as well as, of course, plumbers, electricians and builders. Many of whom have put in their life savings or had to get finance to get their businesses up and running who should be entitled to a decent cut if they chose to sell their enterprise in the future.
Sadly, and frustratingly, the government doesn’t understand this. With no business experience how could they? How can they act like entrepreneurs if they don’t understand what makes us tick.
When most people think of entrepreneurs they’re often characterised as swashbuckling, risk-taking individuals who forge their own path to business success. And, honestly, that’s pretty much true. However, there’s often one thing missing from that description – the ability to listen to the best advice from experienced people around you.
No entrepreneur can succeed solely on their own – they seek guidance, mentorship, advice and good old know how from the people who’ve been there, seen it and done it. It’s just a shame that Starmer, Rayner, Reeves, Reynolds and the rest of the crew are too pig-headed to take the same advice before the heart is ripped out of British entrepreneurship.
The budget might balance on Rachel Reeves’ spreadsheet, but in the real world, it’s not possible to grow the economy by pummelling small businesses
The consequences they’ll suffer will be far less, of course, than the millions of firms and the many, many people they employ who’ll take the brunt of this government’s shortsighted attack on business.
This post was originally published on here
