Small Business Saturday

Toby Perkins Excerpts

Thursday 4th December 2014 Westminster Hall

[Stephen Mosley]

I know how much the hon. Member for Streatham has been involved. He first learned about small business Saturday when he saw celebrities and high-profile people in the US tweeting about it. He, with Members from all parts of the House, put in a huge amount of work to bring small business Saturday to the UK last year. In the UK, small business Saturday has settled on the first Saturday in December, and it aims to have a long-term impact by encouraging shoppers to shop local and support the small businesses in their local area.

An independent community interest company, Small is Big, has been set up to run small business Saturday in the UK, and it endeavours to encourage organisations to support small business Saturday and get the word out about the day. Organisations such as the Federation of Small Businesses, the Association of Town & City Management, the Association of Convenience Stores and the Northern Ireland Independent Retail Trade Association have given their support and have encouraged their memberships to get involved. Last year’s small business Saturday gained widespread support and publicity across the UK in the newspapers, on TV and in social media.

Surveys show that 48% of UK customers were aware of last year’s small business Saturday and of the campaign’s aim to encourage people to shop small and shop local. The small business Saturday UK Facebook page gained more than 1.5 million views, and #SmallBizSatUK was in Twitter’s top three trending items all day. The campaign gained widespread support across the country, with 40% of local authorities also supporting the day. It is estimated that more than £460 million was spent in small businesses on that day alone, with 43% of shoppers deciding specifically to shop at a local store, spending £33 each on average.

Last year, small business Saturday gained the support of more than 200 Members of Parliament, including the Prime Minister and Members from both Front Benches. I was one of those 200 MPs, and I used small business Saturday to try to boost our local small shops and high streets in Chester. We distributed fliers and posters, and with the support of the local newspapers, we advertised both the day and special offers by many of our local shops. More than 400 local shops took part, and I started my Christmas shopping in the wonderful Chester suburb of Hoole, which has a fantastic reputation as one of the premier local high streets in Chester and is full of local, independent shops.

Running alongside small business Saturday, I was delighted to organise and run our first small business awards, which allowed customers to nominate and vote for their favourite independent shops and businesses. It was obvious that local people recognise the difference that these businesses make, whether it be the great customer service they receive or the high-quality products that the shops deliver. More than 150 businesses took part in the awards, and more than 1,000 local people voted for their favourite business. G&M Goold funeral directors in Vicars Cross and Monogram dry cleaners in Newton were the joint winners of my awards last year.

This year’s small business Saturday looks likely to beat all records. Like last year, we are seeing a huge push on the internet and on social media. The website www.smallbusinesssaturdayuk.com contains loads of useful information and promotional materials, such as digital packs of downloadable marketing material, including posters, logos and social media icons. There is also advice on running successful social media campaigns and a useful guide to avoiding the most common Twitter pitfalls—something some of our colleagues could do well to read. The small business Saturday team is using social media channels to feature 100 small businesses—one a day—in the 100 days leading up to small business Saturday, highlighting all that is great about small businesses. Foodies, an Edinburgh cafe, bakery and caterer launched with help from the Prince’s Trust, is today’s “small biz 100” company.

Alongside the online campaign, the small business Saturday bus is travelling the length and breadth of the country advertising small business Saturday and handing out promotional materials. There is also a big campaign in the traditional media, with many national and local newspapers already getting behind small business Saturday, highlighting the importance of Britain’s small businesses and backing the “shop small, shop local” campaign.

Chester will again be playing its part in ensuring that small business Saturday is a huge success. My office has produced small business packs containing posters and fliers, which we have distributed to small shops in the city centre and in suburban shopping areas. We have launched this year’s competition to find Chester’s favourite small business and distributed thousands of nomination slips, as well as allowed people to nominate their favourite small businesses on my “Championing Chester” website. Chester has a strong reputation as home to many successful small independent shops and I look forward to seeing the nominations and joining the celebration of our small business scene’s diversity and success.

Small business Saturday is an excellent way of highlighting the importance and success of small business across the UK, but the campaign, as we have heard, is about more than encouraging people to use small, independent local shops on one day a year. It is also about changing people’s mindsets so that they shop local and shop small every day of the year. Just as consumers need to be there to support small business 365 days a year, the Government also need to be there 365 days a year.

So far, as we have heard in interventions, the Government have an impressive record. I will briefly outline some of the welcome measures and support that have been provided to help small businesses thrive and grow. They include: the employment allowance, which has cut each company’s national insurance bill by £2,000, which directly benefits smaller companies disproportionately more than large multinationals; the reduction in corporation tax rates; the doubling of small business rates relief, and the welcome announcement from the Chancellor yesterday that that will continue after April next year. A £1,000 business rates discount has also been introduced for retail premises with a rateable value up to £50,000, which the autumn statement yesterday increased to £1,500 from April next year.

[Toby Perkins (Chesterfield) (Lab)]

We all know business rates are a bugbear for many small businesses, particularly in the high-street sector. What was the hon. Gentleman’s view on the Government’s decision back in 2012 to put off the revaluation of business rates? Does he think that that was a mistake, on reflection, or does he support their decision?

[Stephen Mosley]

I am delighted by the action that the Government have taken, whether it is the introduction of small business rates relief, the rebate for small retail units or, as we heard earlier, the decision announced yesterday to review the business rates system. I hope that the Opposition support the Government in achieving their aims.

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[Toby Perkins]

In terms of the business rates, I am not clear what the Government’s aims are, other than having a review. However, I was asking the hon. Gentleman specifically about the decision to put off the revaluation of business rates, which will have had a significant impact on most northern communities, and probably on his. I would be interested to hear his analysis and whether he supported that measure.

[Stephen Mosley]

I was trying to keep the small business Saturday debate non-political to show what support exists across the House for small business in the UK, but if the shadow Minister wants to get political, I could point out why this Government inherited massive spending problems in 2010. Huge mistakes were made up to 2010. I do not want to go there; I want to keep this debate positive about what we can do to help small business going forwards. Is the hon. Gentleman happy with that?

[Toby Perkins]

I am happy to take that challenge, although I do not know why the hon. Gentleman feels quite so threatened. He was reading off a list of things that the Government had done, and one of the most significant decisions that they have taken over the past few years has been their decision on business rates. He is talking about business rates, so I asked whether he supports that decision. He should not necessarily see that as hostile; I am just asking him what his view is.

[Stephen Mosley]

I quite agree that the Government have done a lot, whether on small business rates relief, the doubling of rates relief or the rebate. I totally support those actions, and I support the announcement yesterday of a future review of business rates.

The measures on business rates and corporation tax allow small businesses to keep more of their hard-earned cash—money they can use to take on more staff, invest in new equipment, or simply pay down debt. To help small businesses raise the cash that they need to start or grow, the Government have also launched the British Business bank, providing up to £4 billion in funding for business on top of the successful start-up loans scheme, which has already provided £150 million to enable more than 20,000 entrepreneurs to follow their dreams and start their own small companies. I am sure that the Minister will highlight many more of the schemes that he and his Government have introduced to help small business in his response to the debate.

Since 2010, hundreds of thousands of new businesses have been launched every year, so that, as we heard the Prime Minister say at questions yesterday, there are now more than 760,000 more businesses in the UK. In my constituency of Chester, new business start-ups have increased by 300%. Small businesses have been responsible for nearly half the job creation in the UK. They employ about 15 million people and make up about half of our private sector economy. Small business has an absolutely fantastic story to tell, and small business Saturday is an opportunity for us all to shout from the rooftops about how important our small and local shops and businesses are.

Although the Government have done a lot to help, it is also crucial that local communities, groups and businesses come together and celebrate all that is great about our small businesses and the contribution they make to our economy and our high streets, because the people who benefit the most from having successful, popular and thriving local shops are local communities themselves. I will be shopping small and local in Chester this Saturday, and I hope that the Minister and other Members will back small business Saturday too.

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

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hollobone, and to make a contribution to this important debate marking our national small business Saturday this weekend. I again congratulate the hon. Member for City of Chester (Stephen Mosley) on securing the debate. I also thank my hon. Friend the Member for Streatham (Mr Umunna), who helped to build the coalition of support to bring small business Saturday to the UK last year.

I grew up in my parents’ small shop in Hounslow. It was very much a community shop and in many ways it was there that I learned the value of feeling part of and serving in a community. Through that experience, I gained a love for small businesses and an appreciation of the role that they play. Growing up in a shop is a different kind of family lifestyle—although it is a common experience for many in my constituency, as I am sure it is for many in other constituencies. The lifestyle is different because it can sometimes be much harder to separate work and home. The shop or business can be a passion for those who are running it, and it becomes part of the whole family life.

Such a life is also a great challenge, with many small business owners sometimes having a day-to-day struggle to make ends meet. They need all the skills—whether being the strategist, the marketing expert, the one who sorts out technology, the accountant or the financial manager. I recall many instances of my father being up late at night dealing with the accounts after putting the kids to bed. When we think about and thank small businesses and their contribution, it is important to recognise the daily challenges faced by many of them.

Many small business owners have also faced such challenges as part of the cost-of-living crisis that we have experienced. I have met many running businesses in my constituency who were struggling to make ends meet. They talked about problems with banks and about taking out extra loans to get through tough times. They welcomed Labour’s commitment to freeze energy bills, because that would save not only families but small businesses significant costs of up to £5,000 a year.

Another important point about small businesses that has already been made is their social contribution. Small businesses make our communities feel so much safer and more friendly. They can make a difference by being open slightly later; when they shut early, local streets can feel deserted and far less safe.

I hope that this weekend we will see many more residents and visitors shopping in local businesses—not only celebrating their success, but helping them with their revenues and growth and making them feel much more valued as real actors and players in our community. It is an excellent fact that 43% of consumers who knew about small business Saturday last year said that they spent more on the day, which contributed to some £500 million in trade. I hope to see that figure exceeded this year. I am certainly looking forward to starting my Christmas shopping in Feltham and Heston in our small businesses.

Small business Saturday is also a chance to celebrate how local businesses can contribute on the national stage. One business in my constituency, Kool Cakes, was founded by Kulwinder Paul Kumar. He was one of the official cake makers for Her Majesty’s diamond jubilee and he made Frankie’s cake in the 2012 “Big Brother”. It is quite something to go into his small shop in Heston, where I often stop for tea and a slice of eggless cake, and to see pictures of such things on the wall and to think, “Actually, this is a local business.” Such people are heroes—national ones as well as local ones.

Many hon. Members have referred to women who run businesses. Last year on small business Saturday, I stopped for a cup of tea at Charlie’s Café in Feltham, which is run by Carol Chownsmith. She is another example of somebody who comes forward because they want to do something that is a passion of theirs and that will make a contribution to their community—a place where local people can come to meet, eat and share their lives. This weekend, I will also visit Heston Florist, which I know is doing some excellent special offers for Christmas—Christmas is, of course, at the forefront of many people’s minds.

I say all this because it is important to think about the character of our businesses. They serve the needs of members of the local community. It is important to have access to such vibrancy and to a range of businesses; it is so much more attractive than going into a supermarket, where the level of service is not nearly as personal.

I will touch on a few other matters. The first has already been raised by several hon. Members: the importance of creating an infrastructure of support and the important role of local authorities, chambers of commerce and others in helping to achieve that. In Hounslow, we have West London Business and the Hounslow chamber of commerce, which do a lot of work to help to network businesses and encourage training programmes.

Hounslow council also encourages the setting up of small businesses, and has made a big difference during the past year by introducing a free half hour of parking—something that many local traders had called for. I have seen the contribution that has made in my inbox, as I now have fewer complaints about the cost of being able to have access to trade on our doorstep. Parking costs had been stopping impromptu trade, so the free parking has made a big difference for traders in my constituency.

Alongside some of the positives, businesses have also raised some challenges with me. For example, they are often on the receiving end of antisocial behaviour. Also, if local authorities do not clear waste quickly enough from in front of their shops, that can be unsightly. Small business owners spend hours and hours in their place of work—they do not leave and come home—so that place is important to their well-being. I have been working with local police on tackling antisocial behaviour and the small crime that affects local shops. That kind of work is incredibly important and we must focus on it at the national level as well. It does not just help shopkeepers and small business owners to feel safe; it is better for the workers in those stores and creates a safe environment for consumers so that they can shop in and support local businesses, whether in the morning, afternoon or evening.

[Toby Perkins]

I am enjoying my hon. Friend’s contribution immensely. She focused on the important role for local authorities in supporting small businesses and on the connection between many different aspects of public services and the success of small businesses. Is she concerned about the autumn statement, in which we heard that there will be absolutely unprecedented cuts in public spending—much of which I suspect will fall on local authorities? We cannot sit in this place and say, “This is what we are doing for local authorities,” and then close our eyes to the impact of local authority cuts on the capacity of councils to support small businesses in their areas.

[Seema Malhotra]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. I worry about the extent of the cuts and the damage that they will do. We absolutely need to respond to those cuts and listen to our businesses and local councils in the debate about them. Reform is also important. We have seen some innovations such as the sharing of work between local authorities and the police, as has happened in Hounslow, with them working together, co-locating and sharing budgets. That will make a huge difference.

Another issue is skills and relationships with local schools. There are some excellent examples—from abroad as well as from this country—of young people in schools getting access to work experience. That gives access to the world of work and an understanding, through experience, of its opportunities and satisfaction; it also allows young people to experience some of the challenges of running an enterprise.

Will the Minister tell us to what extent building links between local businesses and schools is part of a programme for work experience development, including for under-16-year-olds in schools? To what extent is that embedded in strategies for local enterprise partnerships and other parts of our economic infrastructure? Support for small businesses on skills and on the ways in which they connect to their communities should be part of a coherent national strategy—it should not just be subject to what a local authority does.

I will close by saying that it is important that we should have had this debate and shared some perspectives from small businesses in our constituencies. As politicians, we must stay live to the reality. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, and the giants of the future often start small. Supporting businesses when they start up so that they can grow is an incredibly important challenge and one on which we must maintain a national focus.

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[Toby Perkins (Chesterfield) (Lab)]

Thank you for that advice, Mr Hollobone. I will take both parts of it seriously. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, for what I believe is the first time.

I congratulate the hon. Member for City of Chester (Stephen Mosley) on securing what has been an excellent and timely debate about small business Saturday. The debate has ranged over a variety of issues, but has had at its heart a recognition of the exciting opportunity the day brings. For Members across the House to have a chance to speak about the importance of small businesses and of small business Saturday just two days before the event is very welcome.

[Jim Sheridan in the Chair]

Today the small business Saturday bus tour reaches its conclusion, as it visits Camden. Last year, memorably, it drove up Downing street and was given a prominent and welcome salute. Whether moving from Westminster to Camden is going up in the world or down is a matter of opinion—I will let individual Members make up their own mind on that—but the tour has been very successful, going out into communities to let businesses know what they can do to promote the day, and ensuring that people know it is happening and that they have an opportunity to support it.

Many hon. Members have been on the bus when it has visited their constituency. It has made 14 visits over the past three weeks. I was there for the tour’s launch in Leeds on 17 November, and very impressive it was, too. I was delighted when on 24 November it came to Chesterfield and I had the opportunity to promote what small business Saturday is all about in my own constituency. The bus tour has been right around the country, to Leeds, York, Edinburgh, Belfast, Manchester, Nottingham, Norwich, Birmingham, Cardiff, Bristol, Plymouth, Lambeth and Camden, as well as to Chesterfield, and has been well saluted. Anyone who has been on it and had the opportunity to see people’s response will have a sense of how strongly people in our communities feel about how important small businesses are, a feeling that has been reflected in the debate.

Small business Saturday in 2013 was a massive success. It drove hundreds of millions of pounds of extra trade to British small businesses and 48% of UK consumers were aware of the day. The hon. Member for City of Chester said there were 1.5 million Facebook views and that #SmallBizSatUK was trending in the top three on Twitter all day. Some 40% of all local authorities supported the campaign and hundreds of events took place across the UK. It was probably the biggest celebration of small businesses the UK has ever seen.

The hon. Gentleman was generous in his recognition of the role of my hon. Friend the Member for Streatham (Mr Umunna) and the fact that this event has been taken up right across the political sphere. It is another example of what happens when everyone in Britain gets together in support of Labour party ideas. It shows what can be achieved, and he was generous in reflecting that. It is right to recognise that wherever the idea started, the most important thing is that it is being supported universally. It also demonstrates what can be achieved in these straitened times without necessarily having a big pot of Government money. Innovative ideas are often what matter, and campaigns that start from the bottom up are incredibly powerful. That was good.

I want to reflect on some of the contributions to this excellent debate. The hon. Gentleman was right to emphasise the importance of small business Saturday. We often think of it in the context of retail and shopping, but it is about much more than that and his comments reflected that. If anyone thought of small business Saturday purely in the context of retail, the fact that a funeral director won the award in his constituency may have removed that misapprehension. The hon. Gentleman made a great speech and I was pleased to hear it and to take up some of the challenges he offered.

The hon. Gentleman listed measures that he thought were positive and then said he did not want a party political debate. He might have hoped for a little too much there, but his point about business rates is incredibly important. He asked me whether the Labour party supports the Government’s aims for the review of business rates. I am not entirely clear what those aims are, but the fact there will be a review is positive. Increasingly in the last few years, the level of business rates has been seen as punitive. We have the highest level of corporate property tax in the G20, corresponding with the lowest level of corporation tax in the G7. We have said we want to maintain the lowest level of corporation tax, but a focus on constantly reducing profit tax and having ever spiralling corporate property tax encourages an economy in which businesses bring their books to the UK, but do not bring their jobs and manufacturing or a presence on the high street. I totally support a review of business rates, but whether I support what the Government want that review to find, I am thus far unable to enlighten the hon. Gentleman, because I am not entirely clear what their aims are. I certainly welcome the fact that there will be a significant debate.

My hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow North East (Mr Bain) made a wide-ranging speech focusing on the importance of a small business administration at the heart of Government. He will be pleased to know that a future Labour Government will want to introduce that, in recognition of the need for Departments throughout Whitehall to work together to support businesses, particularly small businesses. He also focused on procurement, which is an area where the Government could do much more to support small businesses. That point was echoed by other hon. Members.

My hon. Friend also spoke about the universal broadband commitment. In my time in my present role, I have been to 45 areas of the country doing small business consultations, and at almost every one broadband access was raised. A few days ago, at a lunch with the Rural Shops Alliance focused on the needs of rural businesses, the alliance spoke strongly about the importance of a more universal offer on broadband.

The hon. Member for High Peak (Andrew Bingham) reflected on the many different roles that a small business owner has. I tried to combine those with being a parliamentary candidate so I know how difficult it is.

[Andrew Bingham]

indicated assent.

[Toby Perkins]

The hon. Gentleman is indicating that he did the same. It was no easy task. In what he described as an evangelical contribution, he highlighted the importance of support for business owners, who often have brilliant business ideas but do not instantly have the different knowledge bases needed. The Government should take some responsibility for supporting access to skills development, so that small businesses are not shut out of Government contracts because they cannot find their way through complicated procurement processes. We must ensure they have access to apprenticeships and Government schemes such as funding for lending. There are pieces of knowledge that are found in big businesses, but not when someone starts a small business. Providing such support for small businesses is incredibly important.

The hon. Gentleman argued that we should make every day a small business day, and won support from other hon. Members. That was an interesting idea. He and I are former small business owners, and all small business owners I speak to do not want special favours or expect people to shop with them as a favour. All they want is a fair chance for people to consider what they have to offer and whether it is worth buying from them, taking a step off the beaten track and looking down some of the small arcades where many of those businesses are located.

Small business Saturday is not about saying that big businesses are bad, or suggesting that we do not need to support all our retailers. We are not in any way demeaning the contribution that big businesses make. What it says is that on one day every year, let us all take a bit of extra time to look at the hidden gems on our high streets or just off them. When we have visited them and perhaps spent money with them, we may return to them naturally because we found things that we did not know were out there. To my mind, that is what small business Saturday is all about.

[Andrew Bingham]

The hon. Gentleman is right. Our business did not want or expect special favours; we just wanted a fair chance to ask people to look at the product, to look at the price and to give us a fair crack of the whip. We just wanted an even playing field and a fair chance to compete with the big boys.

[Toby Perkins]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for saying that because it fits in with something I will say in a few moments about the Government’s role of ensuring that all businesses in a free market get a fair chance. His contribution was powerful in several ways and I look forward to returning to it.

My hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough (Andy McDonald) reflected on the fact that small business owners often work incredibly long hours to keep the wheels of commerce turning, and he was right to point that out. He also said that they are often the last to be paid, both personally in terms of taking money out of the business, and often because they are way down the list of supplier payments. As he knows, the Labour party feels passionate about that, and there is a role for the Government to ensure that we do more to eradicate the scourge of late payment to small businesses.

The sense of excitement and anticipation my hon. Friend feels as he looks forward to small business Saturday positively crackled out of every word of his contribution. He demonstrated his wide-ranging—almost encyclopaedic—knowledge of the small businesses in Middlesbrough, and he particularly promoted the fabulous fashions available there. He did not let us know whether he was dressed in one of the latest of those fashions, but I suspect that he and my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Tom Blenkinsop), who was here a moment ago, are examples of just some of the fashions available on the Middlesbrough high street, and what fine examples they are too.

The hon. Member for Cheadle (Mark Hunter) paid tribute to the businesses that go the extra mile. He made an incredibly important point about the contribution businesses often make to the vibrancy of the high street and the community by supporting initiatives, either with local authorities or as part of the business community, and business improvement districts have been important contributors in that respect. It is important that everyone gets together to make sure our high street has a vibrant offer.

Many hon. Members reflected on the progress that has been made on woman entrepreneurs and on their importance, and that is an incredibly important issue. One of the key challenges the country continues to face is how to develop women’s entrepreneurial potential further, particularly after they have had children. We continue to do less well than we could, because of the impact of child care costs and the fact that we are a time-poor society in many ways. Broadband is important, because women entrepreneurs often want to run businesses from home. There are therefore a huge number of challenges the Government should look to take up, and it is great that Members have reflected on the importance of the issue.

[Maria Miller]

The hon. Gentleman has reflected on the importance of child care, particularly for women entrepreneurs. I therefore hope that he will welcome the tax break that the Government have, for the first time, given the self-employed in relation to child care. Surely that is an important step in the right direction, and I hope that he will support it.

[Toby Perkins]

I absolutely do. The right hon. Lady may be aware that the proposal first featured in Labour’s small business taskforce report, and we are pleased that the Government have brought it forward. Whoever’s idea it is, the fact that good ideas are followed up is positive.

The right hon. Lady is right to focus on child care. She and many other people across the House will look forward to the day when child care is not seen as just a women’s issue, but it remains one of the barriers that women entrepreneurs face. I am therefore pleased that the Labour party has made a commitment to increase the level of free child care to 25 hours a week. We have seen some positive steps under this Government, notwithstanding our concerns about the increase in costs in the sector. However, I entirely agree with the right hon. Lady.

I also enjoyed the right hon. Lady’s earlier contribution, in which she paid tribute to the Federation of Small Businesses. She also gave us an evocative historical tour of her constituency. She was right to say that small businesses are an important part of the history of our town centres, and we want them to be a part of their futures as well. That is what this debate and small business Saturday are all about.

My hon. Friend the Member for Feltham and Heston (Seema Malhotra) spoke about the extent to which small businesses can make an impression on the national, as well as the local, stage. She also mentioned the importance of the relationship between our public services and local authorities and our small businesses.

One thing that has come across in the debate is how widespread support is on this issue. My hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough spoke about some of the work he has done in his constituency. I did a little research before the debate to find out what happened last year, and I was amazed by the different contributions people told me they had made. My hon. Friend the Member for Bury South (Mr Lewis) wrote to local small businesses and to business groups such as the local chamber of commerce to encourage them to participate in the festivities. My hon. Friend the Member for Bolton West (Julie Hilling) spent the first small business Saturday on the high street in the Horwich area of her constituency interacting with people and promoting the small businesses there. My hon. Friend the Member for Wakefield (Mary Creagh) did her Christmas shopping at the Wood street Christmas market on small business Saturday, combining important family duties with promoting the high street in a very practical way.

My hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Wavertree (Luciana Berger) backed local festivals, including I Love Allerton Road and Loving Lodge Lane—there is a lot of love going on in Liverpool—to promote and support the small businesses that trade in those areas of her constituency. My hon. Friend the Member for Dudley North (Ian Austin) publicised the free parking on offer in his constituency, to support the 100,000 people in the wider local authority area who are employed by small businesses. Finally, I had the opportunity to visit 25 different small businesses right across Chesterfield and Staveley—I should stress that I am not being competitive—and I have photos of me at all of them on the wall of my constituency office.

I was also delighted to see that local authorities of all colours have been backing small business Saturday in their own way. Brent has a campaign called “Think Brent, Celebrate Local”. In Stockton, the local council has opened the Enterprise Arcade, with 13 new businesses testing out their retail ideas ahead of small business Saturday. Ashfield district council is one of many local authorities that will be supporting small business Saturday by offering free car parking. Waltham Forest is running its “Hidden Gems” campaign, which fits in with what I was talking about a moment ago. It encourages people to get off the beaten track slightly. The council has showcased a map giving independent retailers, cafés and bars an opportunity to promote themselves in their local community. Derby city council is hosting an event that will showcase a wide variety of support for small businesses and provide networking opportunities.

Community campaigners up and down the country got in touch to talk about what they were doing. My hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough reflected on what was happening in Stockton and Louise Baldock’s contribution. In Harlow, Suzy Stride worked to promote small business Saturday by visiting a local “mumtrepeneurs” group promoting the message about female business owners that we have just reflected on. Mari Williams led a small business Saturday in Whitchurch, working with the local community and trader association, and more than 50 businesses took part. Lynette Kelly in Leamington set up a business consultation event at the Lamats hardware store in Regent place on her patch. Andrew Pakes in Milton Keynes worked with the local council to provide high street information packs. Catherine Atkinson ran a “Shop Local” campaign in Ilkeston and Long Eaton. Right across the country, people from across the business community and the political scene, as well as community campaigners, worked together to see what they could do on that one day to promote small businesses. That provides a really powerful recognition of the importance of small businesses and small business Saturday.

The hon. Member for City of Chester spoke about wanting to be positive, and that is absolutely right. We need to say what we in this place can positively do, and we need to think about what the small business community might ask of us in relation to small business Saturday. However, we should also make sure that supporting small businesses is something we do not just for Christmas, but every day of the year.

There are a number of things a future Labour Government should aim to do. The first, which we have had a lot of focus on in the debate, relates to business rates. Labour has a specific proposal to reduce business rates in its first year in government. That would be paid for by not taking forward the final 1% of the planned corporation tax cut and, instead, ploughing all that money into supporting the 1.5 million small firms with a rateable value under £50,000. That would be a really significant step, which would reduce business rates in the first year and freeze them in the second year. That is not a discount approach, and there would not be an underlying rate that is going up all the time, with a discount being offered, as we are seeing currently; there would actually be a real cut and then a freeze. We also have a proposal to freeze energy bills. Energy is one of the highest costs that small businesses pay, and our proposal would save the average small business £1,800.

The banking system was mentioned. Small businesses consistently say that limited access to finance is the biggest barrier to their growth; 89% of UK small businesses are locked into the five big banks for banking facilities, and we are committed to a more competitive banking system. Hon. Members reflected on Nick Tott’s suggestion in 2011 of a British business bank. We are delighted that the Government’s British business bank is morphing more into what we originally suggested, but we think that we can go much further with that—in addition to a generation of new local banks.

A primary child care guarantee would give all parents of primary schoolchildren guaranteed access to child care through their school, from 8 am to 6 pm—we have heard about the need to offer more free child care to nursery age children. We recognise that that would be incredibly important to small businesses.

We are concerned that the privatisation of Royal Mail threatens the universal service obligation. We will campaign to ensure that, under a Labour Government, it will remain.

Late payments mean that small businesses do not get money they are entitled to; 2,500 businesses a year go bust because they have not been paid the money they are owed. The proposals that we have made in debates on the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill to put the onus on customers to pay on time, rather than on small businesses to report them, will be taken forward in the Labour party manifesto. Those proposals have won support from the small business community, including from the Federation of Small Businesses and the Forum of Private Business. Working with councils and the high street, a future Government will be able to make a positive offer on various aspects of skills, which will make a real difference.

I want to repeat my congratulations to the hon. Member for City of Chester and all those who spoke in the debate, and I have a few questions for the Minister. First, we have heard about what action people are taking to support small businesses, and to support and promote small business Saturday. The fact that it is a bottom-up development is valuable, but a quarter of a mile from us in Victoria street there is a huge amount of resource, and it would be interesting to know what contribution the Government have made to supporting the day.

The autumn statement highlighted the fact that consumer debt is fast approaching a record level. Is the Minister concerned about that? Does he think it might affect future high street growth? He will know that the Office for Budget Responsibility predicted in relation to the autumn statement that consumer debt will be higher in the next two years than it was at its pre-recession peak. There is a sense that much high street growth is fuelled by consumer debt.

I am interested in what the Minister may say about balance, in the context of giving communities a say about the make-up of their high street. Often a lack of attention to planning commitment in a high street has led to action that is good in the short term but destroys the look of the town centre in the long term. We need to support town centres through transition periods. Does the Minister think the balance is right, at the moment, between the need for local authorities and communities to have a say about what happens in the high street, and the need for planning to provide opportunities for those with entrepreneurial or innovative development ideas? I have a sense that the Government see planning as a barrier to growth; what do they propose to do in support of getting the right balance in high streets between reflecting history and not preventing reasonable, sympathetic growth?

I look forward to the Minister’s responses, and I have enjoyed winding up an incredibly constructive debate.

[The Minister for Business and Enterprise (Matthew Hancock)]

It is a pleasure to respond to this debate about small business Saturday, so ably and eloquently opened by my hon. Friend the Member for City of Chester (Stephen Mosley), who represents the city of my birth. He is a great ally and friend of small businesses in Chester and beyond. He talked about the difficulties of retail space in Chester—its cost, and the accompanying business rates—and I know very well what he was talking about, because it was the pounding ground of my youth. I am sure that shopkeepers, whether their shops are old or new, will welcome the increase of small business rate relief for retail outlets to £1,500, which was announced yesterday. I hope it will allow them to put the small business Saturday card in their windows, and participate in the day, with even more enthusiasm.

The debate has been positive and cross-party, and small business Saturday has strong cross-party support. I want to answer the first of the questions put to me by the hon. Member for Chesterfield (Toby Perkins)—I almost called him my hon. Friend; we spend so much time together these days that it is almost coming to that—about what the Government are doing to promote small business Saturday. We are putting a huge amount of effort into doing that, but crucially it is a bottom-up, small business-led campaign.

The idea came, of course, from the United States of America, and when we were approached to build it up in the UK we were very keen. However, we are also keen that the Government should not take the lead. I acknowledge the work done by the Opposition Front Benchers to ensure that the enterprise is truly cross-party. Therefore, although the Government have put effort in, we have chosen not to take a lead. It is far better for small business Saturday to be led by the hundreds of thousands, and hopefully in due course millions, of small businesses that participate.

[Toby Perkins]

I agree entirely with the Minister; but he does not usually hide his light under a bushel, so can he be a little more specific? He said that the Government have put in a huge amount of effort, so what specifically have they done?

[Matthew Hancock]

Most of the support has been on the communications front, through the brilliant Michelle Ovens, to whom I pay tribute for leading the private organisation for small business Saturday. The communications effort last year included hosting the small business Saturday bus in Downing street and ensuring that the Government communication machine came in behind small business Saturday. This year we will hold a street market in Downing street, and we have invited 100 of the most exciting small businesses in the country. The street stalls are already being constructed in Downing street, to make it an exciting part of the day. The market will run from tomorrow, in advance of and into small business Saturday. We will have Ministers from the Prime Minister down fanning out across the country to celebrate the day, and I am sure that even the Business Secretary will get involved.

What we have done has mainly been on the communications side; but to that must be added the policy changes we have made. The Government are incredibly enthusiastic about small business. Of course, a stable and growing economy is the No. 1 thing that can help small business. My hon. Friend the Member for High Peak (Andrew Bingham) talked about the problems of late payment, and the effect of a big customer going bust or going into liquidation. That happened to my family business when I was growing up. It is a very painful memory, because we were days away from going bust, which would have had serious consequences not only for the 20 or so people we employed, for whom we felt a responsibility, but for my mother and stepfather, who worked in the business. I thought my hon. Friend put it incredibly powerfully. Of course, not only is High Peak one of the most beautiful parts of the country, but it has had 2,600 start-ups since 2010, when he became the local representative.

The stable macro-economy makes an important contribution to small businesses. On tax, the hon. Member for Chesterfield said that it was not important to reduce taxes on profits. I know it is his party’s policy to oppose that reduction, and I do not want to get too much into that, but the point is that reducing corporation tax sends out a signal that we support and celebrate businesses of all sizes and allows businesses to be attracted to the UK. At the same time, we have to tackle business rates, and we propose to do so with a review, which will report after the election. Business rates raise over £20 billion, so they make a significant fiscal contribution, but the complaints I receive are mostly about their design; they become an overhead, rather than being related to the amount of turnover or profit. They are a higher-risk tax than either corporation tax on profits or taxes on the pay of employees, such as national insurance.

[Toby Perkins]

The Minister will be glad to know that my right hon. Friend the Member for Morley and Outwood (Ed Balls) has declared that we will continue to have the lowest corporation tax in the G8. On business rates, when Government set out on a review, they usually have an idea of what they want to find at the end of that. We accept that a lot of evidence will come in before the report’s final make-up becomes clear, but will the Minister give us an idea of what the Government see the end point looking like?

[Matthew Hancock]

We announced the review yesterday, so the hon. Gentleman will not be surprised to hear that I do not have its conclusions today. However, we can see the direction of travel. We have reduced the impact of business rates on retail outlets and capped the increase in business rates. We have also extended the discount through small business rate relief, which, when the previous Government left office, was about to close. We have continually extended that—we have done so for a further year from 1 April this year, so we can see the direction of travel.

We will want to get the details right, so we are very keen to hear about how we do that from small businesses, their representative bodies and others with an interest. However, I take the point, made by my hon. Friend the Member for High Peak, that small business people do not have the time to go and lobby their MPs because they are too busy running their businesses. He is absolutely right about that.

My right hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke (Maria Miller) made a powerful speech about small businesses in Basingstoke. Let me answer her questions specifically. Am I satisfied with connectivity for small businesses? No, I am not. We are rolling out broadband and increasingly the country is being covered by superfast broadband. The roll-out of 4G has helped with connectivity, but none of these things is complete. I have visited a centre that conducts research into 5G, which is an exciting technology, but the most exciting thing about it is that the research began even before the roll-out of 4G started, which is a sign that we have our eyes on the future. There is a lot of work to do to get all that right. Places in the world such as South Korea are absolutely miles ahead of us on this issue, and we need to keep pushing hard.

My right hon. Friend asked about women in work and promoting female entrepreneurs, and she and I have worked on that in the past. A record number of women are in work, and I am also glad that the gender pay gap has come down to a record low. The details show that for those under the age of 40, the gender pay gap has all but been eliminated. I would like to see it eliminated altogether, but that is a big, positive change.

Undoubtedly, the most important things for female entrepreneurs are exactly the same things that help male entrepreneurs—making it easier to employ people, making it easier to start a business and having a stable macro-economy—but there are specific things that can particularly help. My right hon. Friend spoke about the challenges of running a small business while supporting a family, and in many cases being the primary support for a family. I know about that very well—not as a mother, but as a son—because my mother ran our family’s small business. I remember very well sitting on her knee as a child while she worked on the finances of the business. She truly was juggling things, almost literally. We have tried across this Parliament to push the extension of support for child care, and I know that Members on both sides support that.

My right hon. Friend asked specifically about social enterprise. The things that make it easy to run an enterprise that is primarily for profit are the sorts of things that can help expand a social enterprise, but we can do—and have done—more specific things to support social enterprise. That, again, is a cross-Government piece of work, because work comes out of all the different Departments to make it easier to grow social enterprises. I am glad to see that the number of social enterprises is rising as well as the number of small businesses.

The hon. Member for Feltham and Heston (Seema Malhotra) also discussed women in business. She talked about local heroes, some of whom I had not even heard of, so I was very glad to hear about those. She spoke specifically about linking enterprise to schools—that is a big agenda that she may hear more about in coming weeks—and particularly about ensuring that schools promote enterprise and business as an exciting and viable future. We have tried to get more people from all sorts of walks of life, including from business, into schools directly to interact with pupils. In fact, we have put a duty on schools to open up to external employers, business people and others, in order to lift horizons and engage more with students. I know that there is more to do on that agenda.

The next steps we need to take are these: we need to make sure that we continue the drive so that where regulation is necessary, it is easier to navigate, and we need to deregulate where possible. We have saved businesses over £1.5 billion in annual costs. We have scrapped or improved 84% of health and safety regulations; thousands of small businesses have been removed from proactive health and safety inspections, for example.

We also have to do more on exports, which were mentioned by the hon. Member for Glasgow North East (Mr Bain). When our major trading partners are struggling and, in some cases, in recession, exports are more difficult, but many small businesses get into exports either by accident or because they have found a particular niche. Many small businesses increasingly find that if they start a website with their product on it, they end up fulfilling an order somewhere else around the world, and that is how they get into exporting. However, fewer than half of businesses have websites through which they can trade—that is, websites on which money changes hands. That point is linked to the one about expanding connectivity, because being able to trade through a website is important.

We are also simplifying and streamlining how businesses access our support services. The website greatbusiness.gov.uk is a single place where businesses can now go for all support from Government and others. We heard the reports from small businesses that the offer of support from Government was often confused and in lots of different pots, so we have brought it all together in one place.

Several hon. Members mentioned the business bank and the need for such a bank. That is absolutely right, so I am delighted that on 1 November the British business bank was given independent status and is now fully functioning. Yesterday, in the autumn statement, it got £400 million of extra support. I am excited about the potential of the business bank. I have already seen it in action—I have visited some of the schemes that it supports—and it is undoubtedly helping with access to finance. However, the biggest thing that we can do to support access to finance is to get the banking system as a whole on an even keel and supporting small businesses. I welcome news of moves in that direction by some of the big banks. There is undoubtedly more local engagement, but this is a long journey after a long journey in the wrong direction in the previous decade or more.

There are 760,000 more small businesses now than there were in 2010. There is a record number of small businesses in the UK—5.2 million. These are the vast majority of businesses in the UK—we could call them the 99%. Conservative Members support them wholeheartedly. There is support across the House for small business Saturday and the work that its promoters are doing to make it a first-rate success. I know that 40% of local authorities were involved in small business Saturday last year. For the first year of an enterprise, that was pretty impressive, but we want to do better and we want small business Saturday to grow and grow.

In my hon. Friend the Member for City of Chester, small businesses have someone who is passionate in his support of them. There are few who would be a better champion of them; there are few whom it would be better to have on their side. I pay tribute to him and the work that he has done, not only as the Prime Minister’s small business ambassador for the north-west of England but nationally, through this debate and many other activities, to ensure that people know about small business Saturday this Saturday. I hope that people will shop small, shop local and support small businesses on Saturday and throughout the rest of the year.