I love statistics. Always have done. I know people don’t trust them, but they give a good idea of what is going on. For example, here in Wyre Forest, we 4,155 businesses. Over 90% of them employ fewer than 10 people. Indeed, nearly 99% of them employ fewer than 49 people. 45 employ between 50 and 249 staff members, and just 10 employ over 250.
Another statistic I heard over the weekend (that I must confess I have yet to verify) is that not a single member of the new cabinet has ever set up their own business. Indeed, apparently, not one of our cabinet ministers has ever worked for a private business.
If true, this is an extraordinary fact. The lifeblood of our economy is dependent on private enterprise to create wealth, bring employment, and generate taxes that all our public services rely on. To have a cabinet where not a single member has any experience of what it takes to run a business is very worrying.
Last week, the Workers’ Rights Bill was introduced. This piece of legislation is there to give more support to workers who may suffer unfair issues. In principle, it’s not a bad thing. But what it does is to increase the burden on employers. That will affect nearly 99% of our local businesses here in Wyre Forest. Businesses with over 50 staff will probably have a human resources department that may be able to absorb the extra work, so OK for the larger 1%, but a massive administrative headache for the 4,100.
And now we have rumours that employers will see a hike in the employer national insurance bill for all their staff. The Labour government will stick to its manifesto pledge of not increasing taxes for working people on VAT, income tax and national insurance by hitting the wealth creators instead.
This week we had the investment summit. But in the week running up to it, Transport Secretary Louise Haigh nearly scuppered a £1.2 billion investment into the UK ports capacity by condemning a Dubai based investor about one of its subsidiary’s workers’ rights record.
Business confidence is an incredibly fragile thing. It is vital that everyone in government works towards supporting business and investment. But having a cabinet that has, apparently, no experience of how businesses work is incredibly worrying.
We have a budget in a couple of weeks. This will be the full proof of just how much our new government understands, or doesn’t, our economy.
