Andrew Turner – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Turner on 2014-06-25.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent steps he has taken to support businesses with five or fewer staff.

Mr David Gauke

The Government’s long term economic plan is backing small businesses as they set up and grow. As part of this plan we are cutting taxes and reducing red tape to help businesses. In particular, the Employment Allowance was introduced in April 2014, and allows businesses and charities throughout the UK to deduct up to £2,000 off their employer National Insurance contributions (NICs) bill each year. Over 60% of the total benefit of the policy is expected to go to businesses with fewer than 10 employees, and a business employing three people on the median full-time private sector wage of £25,800 in 2014-15 will see their typical NICs bill cut by over 25 per cent.

In addition, Autumn Statement 2013 announced the extension of the Small Business Rate Relief until April 2015, taking 350,000 small businesses out of business rates.

The British Business Bank was launched in October 2013 to make finance markets work better for small firms, allowing them to prosper, grow and support the UK economy. Over the next five years, the Bank aims to unlock up to £10 billion of financing for viable smaller businesses. Business Bank programmes facilitated a total of £782m of new lending and investment in the fiscal year 2013/14, to over 30,000 businesses. This represents more than a doubling of activity on the previous year. The Business Bank also supported £100m of new Venture Capital investment in 2013/14. StartUp Loans is a £322m scheme to help individuals to access finance and support to start a business. Over 18,000 loans totalling more than £90m have been made since the launch in April 2012.

These measures are all part of our economic plan that is building a stronger, more competitive economy.