Growing the UK Economy
Debate between Adnan Hussain and Darren Jones(3 weeks ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Darren Jones
I support my hon. Friend’s encouraging words on the Chancellor’s announcement on the lower Thames crossing. The Treasury is working with the Department for Transport and the project leaders for the lower Thames crossing, and I suspect we will have more to say in the coming months.
Mr Adnan Hussain (Blackburn) (Ind)
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury articulates a vision whereby the Government are committed to facilitating business investment, generating jobs and opportunities. However, I would welcome his comments on what the Government are doing to support small businesses which form the backbone of our economy, especially in my constituency where we have over 600 small businesses.
Darren Jones
As the hon. Member will know, at the Budget, in our design of the national insurance contribution scheme for employers, we protected small businesses to ensure that over 50% of businesses will pay either the same as they did before or less than they did before in employer national insurance contributions. That is in addition to a permanent discount on business rates for retail businesses on the high street, many of whom will be small businesses of the nature he refers to in his question.