Marcus Jones
Main Page: Marcus Jones (Conservative - Nuneaton)Department Debates - View all Marcus Jones's debates with the Department for Education
(12 years, 10 months ago)
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Mr Marcus Jones (Nuneaton) (Con)
I will try to use that time wisely, Mr Streeter.
Many people often have a rosy view of self-employment. They think of afternoons spent on the golf course, corporate boxes at cricket matches, sloping off early and the large financial rewards that come with all that. In reality that is not the case. The hon. Members in this Chamber who have run their own businesses know that running a small business involves hard graft and long hours. That is particularly the case to start with, when there are often few rewards and plenty of stress. My hon. Friend the Member for Watford (Richard Harrington) hit the nail on the head earlier when he mentioned taking on people and the fact that for small businesses it is about not only employing people and the difficulties that come with that but being in a situation in which people are dependent on them for their living and their livelihoods.
As I have so little time, I will focus on the issue of risk and reward, particularly in relation to taxation. I will then specifically focus on the relationship between people who operate very small and micro-businesses and those who then expand those businesses so that they can take on people to grow our economy. When I looked on Wikipedia, it said that taxation may well be higher for someone starting a small business than for someone who is actually employed. We must ensure that we allow people to expand those businesses. One example that I want to bring to the Minster’s attention is that of a hairdresser who may go from renting a chair in an existing business to taking on their own premises, if they were so incentivised. A VAT threshold of £73,000 could cause a problem with incentivising people. That is one micro-example, but we need to consider taxation in the round and think about how it affects micro-businesses and small businesses in comparison with medium-sized enterprises and larger businesses to ensure that the Government create an enterprise culture, which was sadly lacking under the previous Government.