I recently had the opportunity to bring an issue that’s close to my heart to the national stage in Parliament: support for our high streets at the heart of our communities. This was through an adjournment debate I secured on the impact of the 2024 Autumn Budget on high street businesses.
As an MP, I’ve been clear that one of my top priorities is championing the many fantastic local businesses we have in Harpenden, Berkhamsted, Wheathampstead, Redbourn, Flamstead, Markyate and Tring. From seeing their incredible contributions to our local economy and people’s everyday lives, and from my own experience of helping out in my mum’s gift shop whilst growing up, this issue has always been firmly on my agenda.
Over recent years, it’s been absolutely heartbreaking to see local businesses struggling, whether from red-tape after Brexit, increased pressures through the Covid pandemic, reduced footfall from the cost-of-living crisis, rising input costs with poor economic growth, or cuts to local infrastructure from Conservative governments slashing local government funding and leaving the economy in a mess.
The current climate alone is enough to have put many of our fantastic small businesses under immense strain. And having seen my mother’s shop struggle under economic pressures whilst growing up, I know the effects of this well.
That’s why it’s been so deeply worrying to see the government introduce an Autumn Budget that’s set to be devastating for such businesses – businesses that have coped through this highly challenging economic climate, only now to be hit by increased taxes and cost hikes set to put their viability at serious risk.
This is why I felt it was so important to raise this in Parliament, to amplify the voices of countless businesses that have reached out to me, dismayed at the daunting cost increases they’re now facing. And to continue the Liberal Democrats’ hard-fought calls for the government to urgently rethink measures announced in their Budget, before it’s too late and small businesses suffer.
Before my debate I launched a survey asking local businesses how the Budget will impact them, and some of the responses I received were really heartbreaking. Businesses told me that a combination of an increase to employers’ National Insurance Contributions (NICs), the minimum wage, and business rates changes like a cut to relief for the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) industry, will just be too much to handle for many.
Some have said they’ll be forced to shorten opening hours, to stop recruitment of new employees or to work longer days as a result of the cost hikes they’re anticipating. One local pub, the Robin Hood, are expecting their business rates costs to double. Family businesses have told me that changes to inheritance tax on family business mean that they will have to lose the building they’ve been in for over two centuries and the business may be broken up, with jobs lost alongside that.
When businesses lose out like this, at worst put in danger of closure, and at best seeing their growth and investment limited, it’s not only local economies that feel the blow but communities on the whole. Small businesses are such a foundation of areas like Harpenden & Berkhamsted not only from the economic benefits they bring in, but for the role they play in the lives of their customers and employees. I can’t put it better than Jordan, from G. Grace & Son in Tring, when he said to me:
“We are more like a community centre at times, providing essential services to the community.”
For all of these reasons, and for all the arguments that were raised in my debate from Members across the House, it’s imperative that the government rethink changes in their Budget.
We Liberal Democrats are pushing for a lifeline for small businesses, urging the Government to scrap its ill-thought out NICs hike or, at the very least, introduce mitigations like exempting small businesses and charities that risk closing their doors.
And on top of this, these struggles local businesses are facing show just how urgently the government need to scrap the broken business rates system once and for all – we need a fairer system supporting growth on our high streets, like a commercial landowner levy.
I hope that through my debate I’ve made the case for these clear, to finally give our incredible high street businesses the support they need and deserve. And until then, I’m determined to keep fighting in their corner.
Time to scrap the broken business rates system that penalises high street retailers and damages growth
