Last Monday saw the launch of ‘Start Up Britain’ a new campaign
launched by some of Britain’s leading entrepreneurs and with the
support of the Government, to give free advice to everyone who is
interested in launching or growing their own business. You can find
out more about this online at www.startupbritain.org and the website
contains practical ideas as well as expert advice.
This initiative follows the Budget presented to parliament on 23rd March
by George Osborne which had a strong focus on supporting businesses
and creating jobs. Apart from the new fuel stabiliser, of particular
interest was the announcement of the creation of 21 new enterprise
zones across the country. The first ten, all based in urban centres,
have been announced and the Government is open to bids from different
areas of the country for the other 11. Inside these enterprise zones
businesses would pay no rates up to £275,000 for five years. I believe
that we have a strong case for the establishment of an East Kent
enterprise zone, and this is something that the Taskforce established
to support people working at the Pfizer site in Sandwich has been
calling for. The bid for the enterprise zone will be submitted through
the new Kent, Essex and East Sussex local enterprise partnership and
it will certainly have my full support.
In addition to this the Chancellor was able to announce that the major
high street banks have agreed to increase lending to small businesses
by 15% in 2011 to £76billion. The Government has also pledged
£180million to provide an additional 50,000 apprenticeships over 5
years which now makes a total of 250,000 new places announced since
last May. The new Enterprise Allowance scheme will also provide
mentoring and support to up to 40,000 people who are starting their
own business having previously been unemployed for 6 months or more.
We all know that times are tight and that in different circumstances
the Government would have more flexibility to cut taxes and increase
spending. But our country had been spending £4 for every £3 it earned
and that could not go on. The Government, just like any family or
business has to live within its means, or else even bigger problems
lie ahead. So as the Government needs to be careful in how it
prioritises what it can spend money on, I think that measures to
create new jobs and help working people on lower incomes have to be
right. George Osborne has announced that he is going to increase in
the income tax personal allowance to £8,105 meaning that people could
take home an extra £326 each year and the Government has taken 1.1
million low paid people out of income tax altogether.
One final initiative I wanted to mention was in the ‘Plan for Growth’
document published alongside the Budget, where the Government
announced that it will be introducing legislation to reduce the
licensing requirements for live music; in particular for small venues,
and also for other forms of entertainment such as theatre, cinema and
indoor sport, which should reduce the costs or putting on events.