As we approach the general election with Labour and the Conservatives deadlocked, and an unprecedented array of smaller parties vying for attention, you can be forgiven if you’ve yet to decide who to vote for. But if the big ticket issues such as the economy and the NHS are not swaying you, then the consequences for your business ought to. Back in November the Simply Britain Pulse Check picked up on a lot of dissatisfaction among Britain’s smallest businesses – but have our politicians listened and delivered plans to keep you happy?
With days to the election we canvassed the views of ten small businesses, to find out which policies have caught their eye:
Looking outside London
The first theme that stands out is the sense of disconnect between the policies that have emerged in the party manifestos and those that small businesses would like to see. Several people we spoke to suggested that none of the main parties have a package that speaks to the needs of businesses outside London.
This feeling is exemplified by Jim Duffy, the founder and chief executive of Entrepreneurial Spark, a programme that aims to nurture entrepreneurs and help them grow their businesses. Duffy says that while Labour’s policies on increasing the minimum wage and guaranteeing apprenticeships are “all very social”, the party has little to offer in terms of enterprise and scaling up. As for the Tories, he calls their offering “a little bit uninspiring”, and says it is too focused on loan finance – frequently, he argues, startup entrepreneurs are at the age where they have mortgages and families, which means they are not in a position to saddle themselves with further debt.
The one party Duffy does praise is the SNP, whose £5m+ Scottish EDGE Fund he believes provides the right mix of funding, loan finance and mentoring. “[Deputy first minister of Scotland] John Swinney is really on the money – the fund was really bold, really risky, and he created it in a tenth of the time that he would create other things.”
Help to grow
However, before those of you south of the border tear up your polling card, there is enough in the other party manifestos to suggest that the next government will have a real influence on small businesses. In particular, despite Duffy’s criticism of loan finance, a number of those we spoke to praised the Conservatives’ Help to Grow Scheme, which intends to provide £1bn of loans to support SMEs looking to make the step up.
Another policy that won praise was the Liberal Democrats’ promise to roll out high speed broadband to 99.9% of households in the UK, as well as to small businesses in both rural and urban areas. However, Carolyn Frank, a partner at Libby Butler Jewellers in Helmsley, North Yorkshire, says she would like this to be taken one stage further: “I’m in favour of any policy that helps rural areas, such as increasing mobile phone connectivity and reducing fuel duty. There is a huge disparity between cities and rural areas for communication infrastructure which needs to be addressed so that the whole country can compete with Europe.”
UKIP’s promise to encourage local authorities to offer at least 30 minutes of free parking in town centres and high streets also won praise from number of those we spoke to. Carolyn was one of these, despite being turned off by UKIP’s stance on immigration, although she said she had some doubts whether it would work in practice. “It’s a great idea because parking is a real issue at local level for many retailers. However, they don’t say that central government would fund it – local authorities are already short of funds, so I can’t see them embracing this idea.”
Lacklustre for Labour
As for Labour, it is clear the party has an image problem among small businesses. Leadership breakthrough specialist Mihaela Berciu complained that Labour doesn’t recognise entrepreneurs’ importance to their economy, saying “they seem to believe that people go into entrepreneurship because they didn’t have a choice, as there were no jobs available”. Others expressed concern about Labour’s promise to crack down on zero-hours contracts; as Terry Koutsios, founder and CEO of the online skills marketplace fivesquid.com, put it: “More and more people are looking for flexibility in the workplace, and being tied to one employer is counter productive for a lot of self-employed people in the new online economies.”
Some praise for Labour came from Arjun Panesar, who is CTO of Diabetes.co.uk, a diabetes forum with almost 150,000 members. Panesar says that although he intends not to vote this year because “governments continue to act regardless of popular approval”, a few of Labour’s promises have caught his eye: “Realistically, Labour’s pledge to address rising costs for small businesses and strengthen rules on late payment is something that we’d welcome. As a small business, late payments can severely affect cashflow. Cutting and then freezing business rates also appeals to us – again, a Labour promise.”
A vote of confidence
Finally, the desire for stability is usually high on the priority list of businesses large and small, but fragmentation of the electorate appears to have made this desire ever keener. “Many SMEs like ours”, says Phil Foster, CEO of the comparison site Love Energy Savings, “are reluctant to take risks with their businesses because the future is so uncertain. In the last four years I believe we have seen a steady recovery and I am reluctant to advocate dynamic change as this may disrupt the positive growth we have been experiencing.”
He adds that while smaller parties having a louder voice is generally a good thing, he is worried that “the wrong coalition” could lead to stagnation in parliament – citing Ed Miliband’s “reluctance” to work with the SNP. “Likewise,” he says, “I think that if a coalition government was to include UKIP, this would be equally unfruitful and would be damaging to our country’s relationship with the EU.”
Content on this page has been produced by Simply Business, the UK’s biggest businessand landlord insurance provider, and sponsor of the supporting business growth hub.
