Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of decreases in levels of high street retail on levels of local employment.

The department recognises the challenges facing high streets and their impact on local employment. Our Plan for Small Businesses sets out how government will work across departments to tackle high street decline, address retail crime and anti-social behaviour, provide targeted funding to places, update our licensing regime and promote greater partnership working on the high street. SMEs on the high street will also benefit from the new tools to unlock access to finance, action to address late payments and regulatory costs, improve digital adoption and create easier pathways to business support through the Business Growth Service.

More broadly, the government recognises the need to protect the smallest businesses, which is why we have more than doubled the Employment Allowance to £10,500. This means that 865,000 employers will pay no NICs at all, more than half of employers see no change or gain overall from this package and employers will be able to employ up to four full-time workers on the National Living Wage and pay no employer NICs.