Celebrating Small Business Saturday today

Celebrating Small Business Saturday 

Small and medium businesses make up 99.9 per cent of the 5.6 million businesses in the UK – they employ almost 17 million people and contribute £2.4 trillion to the economy. 

• That is why the Conservativves are helping small businesses succeed by cutting their businesses rates, cutting the cost of employing staff and keeping corporation tax low. We are also freeing up billions of pounds of Start Up Loans so new businesses are created every day. 
• By taking the long-term decisions to support these businesses we are supporting local jobs and helping to secure economic growth to fund public services.  

We are doing this by:

• Cutting tax for small and medium businesses, allowing them to focus on their priorities. We have raised the employment allowance to £5,000 which delivers a £1,000 tax cut for small businesses – and we have secured a lower rate of corporation tax for smaller businesses through the Small Profits Rate, meaning smaller businesses do not pay the same amount of tax as larger businesses (Source: HM Treasury, Spring Statement 2022, 23 March 2022).
• Freezing business rates for small businesses for a fourth consecutive year, ensuring small businesses can focus on growing their business. We are freezing the small business multiplier yet again, saving an average shop £1,650, and extending the Retail Hospitality and Leisure Relief for a year which supports businesses most commonly found on the highstreets such as shops and pubs (Source: HM Treasury, Autumn Statement 2023, 22 November 2023).
• Moving the threshold for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from 250 to 500 employees, cutting the costs of regulation for nearly 40,000 businesses. We moved the threshold for SMEs from 250 employees to 500, meaning 40,000 businesses now qualify as an SME – cutting the costs by reducing the regulations they are subject to, saving them time and resources (Source: PMO, Press Release, 2 October 2022).
• Delivering over £900 million in Start Up Loans for British businesses since 2012, releasing the potential of our entrepreneurs to help grow the economy. The British Business Bank has delivered more than 97,000 loans worth £900 million to new business owners across the UK since 2012 – at the Spending Review 2021-22 we committed to making 33,000 more loans over the next three years (Source: British Business Bank, Press Release, 26 September 2022).