Reducing Costs for Businesses

Seema Malhotra Excerpts

Tuesday 11th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

One thing that stands out from this debate is that British business is calling for a Government who are on its side. We have just seen the third consecutive quarter with more than 100,000 business deaths reported. From across the House, we have heard stories about struggling businesses, jobs at risk, businesses facing hardship and closure, and sectors of our economy left to fend for themselves as crises are worsened by Government inaction. I thank colleagues for speaking in this debate, including my hon. Friends the Members for Llanelli (Nia Griffith), for Halifax (Holly Lynch), for St Helens South and Whiston (Ms Rimmer), for Bradford West (Naz Shah) and for City of Durham (Mary Kelly Foy), the hon. Members for Thirsk and Malton (Kevin Hollinrake) and for Richmond Park (Sarah Olney), the hon. and learned Member for Edinburgh South West (Joanna Cherry), and many others.

The reality is that business support from this Government has been haphazard or, for some, non-existent. One thing that business needs above all else is stability and the ability to plan ahead with confidence. That has been as absent as the Chancellor was before Christmas, with his trip abroad delaying much needed action for businesses in that period. The Government were also absent during last summer’s HGV crisis, the steel crisis, the supply chain crisis, the CO₂ crisis and the fuel crisis that saw forecourts close across the country, with small businesses reliant on their vehicle for trade unable to visit their customers. This Government had one test—were they making life easier for businesses to get through the covid crisis, or were they making life harder? In many respects, they failed that test.

On top of that, the Conservatives are bringing in a new jobs tax, just as support measures come to an end. That is not a plan. It is evidence of a lack of one. Clearly, the Conservative party has become the high-tax party because it is the low-growth party. All the indications are of future years of low growth, on top of the low growth going into the pandemic.

When it comes to the economy, Labour puts the national interest first. We called for furlough-style employment support in early 2020 and it was right to have such support. We called for and supported help for the self-employed, business loans and urgent support on commercial rent debt. However, so much came so late, with businesses paying the price. Many are still excluded from the support that they need.

Covid is not over, however, and businesses need clarity on how to plan for the future. We believe in a strong private sector where investors and entrepreneurs are rewarded fairly. We believe in an economy where companies are good corporate citizens, sharing wealth, engaging communities, paying their fair share of tax and treating their employees with dignity and respect; in a national economy that is anchored in every part of the UK, every region and nation, with no locations left behind; in prosperity that is shared evenly, bringing security, dignity and respect to families across our country; and, most of all, in an economy that moves smoothly towards a low-carbon economy, with a plan for how businesses move to net zero and, as part of that journey, our businesses doing well as they do good.

To achieve those goals, we need a proper industrial strategy, with a plan for how we buy, make and sell more in Britain, a strategy with leadership and direction that guides serious investment, not an incoherent plan with slogans and soundbites. The more I hear the phrase “levelling up”, the less faith I have that the Conservative party has a clue about what it is doing.

Today’s Labour party is the party of business. We will freeze business rates until the next revaluation. We will increase the threshold for small business rates relief, ahead of more fundamental reform—[Interruption.] Government Members may chuckle, but that is because they know that we are right. We will support businesses now with their energy bills, extend the VAT discount for hospitality, and invest in skills and training to tackle skills shortages to help businesses to build those new capabilities.

Every economic indicator, every commentator and every ounce of common sense tells us that we have the perfect storm of rising costs, rising skills shortages and rising taxation. This is catastrophic for businesses. So Ministers have a choice. What will they do to support businesses, large and small, with the next set of challenges that faces them? Businesses across the country are watching and waiting for a plan. They cannot keep shouldering the burden. Today is the Minister’s opportunity to tell businesses what the Government will do now. It is now the Labour party that is the party of business and the Conservatives that have led to life for British businesses being harder than it is for businesses abroad.