Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Ian Murray and Sam Gyimah(9 years, 10 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Gyimah
I cannot speak for the Electoral Commission, but as the right hon. Gentleman knows, individual electoral registration is the biggest modernisation of our electoral system for more than 100 years. He also knows that nobody who was on the register in January 2014 will not be on the register come the 2015 election, so there is no risk there. Finally, the £4.2 million that the Government have invested in ensuring that we reach under-represented groups is well targeted. Authorities that have more under-represented groups received more money. We have learned the lessons from Northern Ireland, which went through the same process, and have safeguarded the existing system.
Ian Murray (Edinburgh South) (Lab)
T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.
Policy for Growth
Debate between Ian Murray and Sam Gyimah
Mr Gyimah
Sorry, I do not have much time.
Another thing that the Government can do, in particular, is look at cash flow. One of the biggest things that determines the fate of a small and growing business is the amount of cash flow, and national insurance and VAT are the key drivers of that. The Government have made the right decision by giving certain businesses national insurance holidays, but it would be great if we could extend that to more businesses.
Mr Gyimah
Sorry, I have to push on.
We need to look at not only national insurance, but the VAT threshold. Ideally, it would be helpful to small businesses if we raised the threshold, but that is not going to be easy in the current environment, so perhaps we should ensure that Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, with its “Time To Pay” policy, does not clamp down too hard on small businesses that are trying to keep their business going, keep people employed and do the right thing. That is absolutely essential.
Let me turn to research and development grants. The representatives of a thriving business in my constituency came to my advice surgery and told me that, to get any R and D grant from the Government, they would have to move to Cornwall. They are willing to put a significant amount of personal capital into their business, but because R and D grants are organised regionally and targeted at certain regions, and they are in the south-east, they lose out. We should have a flexible system in which the money follows innovation and ideas and is not just targeted at certain regions.
My right hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (Mr Redwood) mentioned the regulatory regime. A big challenge for small businesses is employment legislation. If every time an employer uses an agency worker they have to calculate after 12 weeks whether they can take on the cost of employing them, we end up with perverse incentives whereby businesses try to make their employees self-employed when they are in fact full employees. The employer is trying to avoid either getting sued if something goes wrong on the employment side or paying national insurance. That does not help the business, nor does it help the Exchequer. I strongly encourage the Government to consider using the freedom Bill to deal with the “one in, one out” policy in relation to legislation for small businesses.
Another factor is access to visas for highly talented people. Many internet and technology businesses who employ computer scientists and require people from all over the world are struggling because of the current visa regime. The Government must consider that, especially as last week the Prime Minister said that we want to create a silicon valley in the east end of London. However, for many of these businesses it is not just about having a cluster in that location, but about whether they can get the talent they need to grow their business. Their revenue profile is such that it takes them a very long time to start gaining revenues. They have a long period where they are investing and testing their technology, and then, if they are successful, they start getting in revenue. If our regulatory regime is such that they are incurring huge costs, whether in national insurance, VAT or statutory employment costs, before they are a viable business, we are not giving them the chance to succeed in this country.
I thank my right hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham for pushing for this debate. If we really want to be pro-business, we should put our money where our mouths are, take away all this legislation, and make the funding regime better for small businesses.