UK Entrepreneurs

Debate between Lord Brownlow of Shurlock Row and Lord Leong

Wednesday 4th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Leong (Lab)]

My Lords, as much as I would love to indulge the noble Lord with an answer, I had best leave all Treasury questions to my Treasury colleagues. As I said earlier, most small businesses will not be affected by the employers’ national insurance rise. At the end of the day, we need confidence and to attract investment to this country, and to allow small businesses to have access to funds. I mentioned the tax reliefs earlier. The EIS, SEIS and VCT are tax reliefs where investors can gain 30% to 50% tax relief immediately and pay no capital gains tax. Those are the tax reliefs that businesses want; and to scale up, there is access to funding from the alternative market and from crowd- sourcing funds, such as Republic Europe and Crowdcube.

[Lord Brownlow of Shurlock Row (Con)]

My Lords, I declare an interest in having started several businesses, the first of which went on to pay £2 billion in tax. I have learned a bit about starting businesses. I would have liked to hear something from the Minister that did not include the phrases “fixing the foundations” or “the £22 billion black hole”. Given all that he has said, why has market and business confidence collapsed since 4 July?

[Lord Leong (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for his question. The Government are committed to attracting investment. That was illustrated in our recent International Investment Summit, where £65 billion was pledged in this country, showing confidence in the Government. I remind noble Lords that in the past few years, FTSE 100 companies have been sitting on a gross cash pile of close to £160 billion, with pre-tax profits ranging from £500,000 to around £2 billion. Shareholders’ dividends have been rising three times faster than wages. We should pay staff well and pay suppliers on time. If more money is spent, companies will make bigger profits—it is a win-win situation.