Oral Answers to Questions

Neil Carmichael Excerpts

Tuesday 1st March 2016 Commons Chamber

[Harriett Baldwin]

I regularly update Parliament on the precise figures. So far, we are at almost £1 billion. Of course, the payments for the annuitants will continue for the rest of their lives.

[Neil Carmichael (Stroud) (Con)]

10. What fiscal steps he is taking to encourage small businesses to grow.

[The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr David Gauke)]

The Government are cutting taxes to encourage small businesses to grow. Corporation tax will fall to 19% in 2017 and 18% in 2020—the lowest in the G20. The employment allowance will rise by 50% this April, giving employers a £3,000 discount on national insurance contributions, and the Seed enterprise investment scheme supports investment in small, early-stage companies, helping more than 2,900 companies to raise over £250 million.

[Neil Carmichael]

Does the Minister agree that that impressive package for small businesses will equip them to benefit from the extension of the single market as negotiated by the Prime Minister, including in energy and services, and that this provides an even more emphatic case to remain in the European Union?

[Mr Gauke]

There are nearly 100,000 firms employing fewer than 50 people that export goods to the European Union, and we want to assist them. Access to the single market is very important to those businesses and the 800,000 people they employ.