Dr Luke Evans, a parliamentary candidate in the upcoming election, has toured businesses in the constituency to find out more about how he can support local businesses if elected as Bosworth and Hinckley’s new MP.
The businesses visited so far include Techknital Fabrics, which produce linings for airline seats, local insurance company Julie Price & Co, and Autowash Engineering, which have been producing commercial van and lorry wash machines since 1973.
Dr Evans tour has been boosted by the Prime Minister’s announcement that the Conservatives will increase a business rate discount for small retailers, which will cut taxes for hundreds of small retailers in Bosworth and Hinckley and across Leicestershire.
This follows the release of new figures which show that the number of small businesses in Bosworth and Hinckley has grown by more than 700 since 2010. In Leicestershire as a whole, the number of small businesses has shot up by over 5,800 across the same period.
Commenting on his day's visiting, Dr Evans said: " we all know small businesses are the back bone of our economy and need to be supported. They are key to generating prosperity. Visiting businesses today was a fantastic opportunity to see what Hinckley and Bosworth has to offer. If elected I am keen to see we can provide an environment for small and medium sized business to thrive."
New announcements to help Businesses:
·Launching a fundamental review of business rates to reduce the overall burden on business. We recognise that business rates are one of the top concerns of British businesses and that many businesses struggle with the current system. Whilst we have introduced a series of new reliefs, we will now conduct a fundamental review of the entire system, working with a wide array of groups to make sure we get this right. We will also commit to real reductions in the overall burden of business rates through this review.
·Raising the Employment Allowance from £3,000 to £4,000. Employers pay Class 1 National Insurance Contributions on their employees’ earnings. The Employment Allowance is currently claimed by over 1millionemployers to reduce their employer NICs bills by up to £3,000. Increasing it to £4,000 will provide a tax cut of up to £1,000 for more than half a million businesses. This will amount to almost a half a billion-pound tax cut for small businesses.
·Increasing the Structures and Buildings Allowance from 2 per cent to 3 per cent. Increasing the SBA to 3 per cent will be an increase on the tax relief on the purchase, building or leasing of a structure will be a significant boost to business investment. This is a permanent increase in the relief and firms of all sizes will benefit. Industries with a faster turnover of buildings such as in agriculture will benefit in particular.
·Increasing the R&D tax credit rate from 12 per cent to 13 per cent and review the scope of these tax credits. It is essential that we boost private sector research and development investment in order to raise productivity over the medium and long term.
Raising the relief rate from 12 per cent to 13 per cent will boost manufacturing and professional, scientific and technical services sectors in particular. As the nature of capital is changing, we will also ensure the tax system is suitable for our dynamic 21stcentury economy by looking at areas of investment such as cloud computing and data to investigate whether they should be included within the scope of R&D tax credits.
References:
1) On 14 November, the Prime Minister announced that the retail discount on business rates, a 33% discount on business rates for retail properties with a rateable value of less than £51,000, would be increased to 50%. (link)
2) Below are figures from the Office for National Statistics on the number of small and medium-sized enterprises across the Bosworth parliamentary constituency, the Leicestershire County Council, and the UK.
Source: NOMIS: ONS, ‘UK Business Counts - enterprises by industry and employment size band’, 02.10.19
3) The same figures put the number of retailers, defined by SITC code 47 – ‘Retail trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles’, in the Bosworth parliamentary constituency at 290.
