Budget: Small and Medium-sized Businesses

Baroness Elliott of Whitburn Bay Excerpts

Thursday 27th November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

There were several measures to help businesses scale up. The enterprise management incentive scheme will be significantly expanded and made available to more companies. Enterprise investment scheme investment limits and gross asset thresholds will be doubled, and venture capital trust investment limits and gross assets thresholds will also be doubled. The Government will obviously publish impact assessments for all those measures.

[Baroness Elliott of Whitburn Bay (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Baroness Bowles of Berkhamsted (LD)]

My Lords—

[Captain of the King’s Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard and Deputy Chief Whip (Baroness Wheeler) (Lab)]

It is the turn of the Labour Party.

[Baroness Elliott of Whitburn Bay (Lab)]

My Lords, I welcome the news of free apprenticeships for under 25s in small and medium-sized enterprises. This is good news for young people and businesses. What impact does the Minister think it will have on the number of people coming into apprenticeships in those arenas?

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am grateful to my noble friend for her support for what we announced yesterday in terms of apprenticeships. We are investing £1.5 billion over the spending review period for investment in employment and skills support, including £725 million for the growth and skills levy to help support apprenticeships for young people and to fully fund SME apprenticeships for under-25s. We will also introduce new reforms to simplify the apprenticeship system and make it more efficient when short courses are introduced from April 2026.