Taxation: Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
Debate between Rachael Maskell and Gregory Stafford(6 days, 7 hours ago)
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Gregory Stafford
I entirely agree with my hon. Friend. Like him, I have held roundtables with hospitality businesses, which are saying the same thing as others: they want to see a cut in business rates. The Conservative pledge to entirely scrap business rates for businesses with bills under £110,000 is the right step and would be welcomed by business. I hope the Minister will take up that idea; good ideas should be taken up by the Government, but they seem to have a problem with doing that.
In mentioning business rates, my hon. Friend reminds me that the Labour party manifesto—which I am sure you read, Mr Dowd—pledged that
“Labour will replace the business rates system, so we can raise the same revenue but in a fairer way.”
That clearly has not happened, because businesses are being hammered.
Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)
I am grateful to the hon. Member for securing this debate. I held a business rates summit in my constituency last week, and what came across is that in York we are seeing an average increase in business rates of 35% compared with the national average of 19.4%, so there is a geographical element to this issue too. Does he agree that we need to revise the whole system, not least because a profit-related tax or a turnover tax could bring in more revenue and cost small businesses far less?
Gregory Stafford
I hope the Minister is listening; this is a problem not just for constituencies in the south but across the country. It is not just Conservative or Lib Dem Members raising the issue—clearly Labour Members have the same problem. The Minister should look at all good ideas, but current Treasury orthodoxy is to carry on with what it is doing, and to tax anything that looks like enterprise, business or job creation, which will destroy our economy and harm our high streets.