Reducing Costs for Businesses

Holly Lynch Excerpts

Tuesday 11th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[Holly Lynch (Halifax) (Lab)]

Businesses in my home town of Halifax have acutely felt the culmination of factors that has created such a tough operating environment in recent months. Halifax had a lot to boast about going into the pandemic, and while the prevalence of independent businesses in Halifax, alongside our financial and manufacturing sectors, gives us a strong offer as a town, it also brings with it a certain vulnerability when faced with the challenges we have endured. We know that business rates have become a weight around the neck of businesses, choking off growth. I hear that time and time again.

Harveys is an independent department store that first opened its doors in 1950. It is an institution in Halifax, but like others, it was forced to close during the pandemic for eight months in total. Naturally, this has had a significant impact on its finances and resilience. Harveys has contacted me with concerns that putting business rates back to pre-pandemic levels before footfall and takings are anywhere near back to pre-pandemic levels could be the difference between survival and failure for it and so many other businesses. We have been clear that we would immediately reduce business rates before scrapping them entirely within the first term of a Labour Government.

There is not time in today’s debate to cover every business sector in need of further consideration and support, but alongside travel and the night-time economy, I will single out children’s soft play as being among those hardest hit. I have several soft play centres in my constituency, and they are required to adhere to the strictest of measures, given the nature of their business as well as the tiered system that affected West Yorkshire for prolonged periods of time. One such business is Play Palace in central Halifax. It was able to benefit from a bounce back loan but sadly it has not bounced back as a business, given the variant and the inevitable time required to rebuild consumer confidence in the activities that it offers. Like other businesses that took up the loans on offer to get them through, it is now carrying debts that only add to the pressures it is facing here and now.

Beyond the pandemic, it comes as a surprise to precisely no one that Brexit was not the bonfire of barriers to trading promised by some. I have heard from 4x4 Overlander Ltd in my constituency just this week. Its costs have already gone up by 10%, and it is seeing rising shipping costs, custom clearances and a whole host of fees and tariffs. The company worries that it will have no option but to pass those costs on to the customer. I have also written to the Government on behalf of the Leo Group and others in my constituency about the skills shortages that are crippling their sector. The rush to end free movement had no accompanying skills plan whatsoever, and those businesses really are feeling it. There are a number of other issues. Crime is affecting businesses in my constituency, and the criminal justice system is collapsing on this Government’s watch. We on this side of the House are listening to businesses. I hope the Government are doing the same.