Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what meetings her Department has had with industry stakeholders on supporting the long-term growth of small and mid-sized quoted companies.

The Chancellor and I regularly meet and engage with senior figures from across the financial services sector and have, in recent months, hosted a series of forums, including with small to mid-sized quoted companies, as the government works towards developing the first Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy, which forms part of the government’s modern Industrial Strategy.

Through the British Business Bank and its programmes, the government is investing over £1 billion into UK small and medium sized companies in 2025-26; these programmes are expected to crowd-in as much from private sector investors. The BBB is also delivering the British Growth Partnership, a novel initiative to crowd-in pension investment in UK VC and innovative companies.

The government is protecting the smallest businesses from changes to Employer NICs by increasing the Employment Allowance to £10,500. This means that in 2025-26, 865,000 employers (43%) will pay no NICs at all, more than half of employers see no change or gain overall from this package and employers can employ up to four full-time workers on the National Living Wage and pay no employer NICs.