Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s speech at the Conservative Party Conference has been met with a mixed response, with praise for certain announcements balanced by criticisms that the speech didn’t go far enough for the UK’s self-employed and small business sectors.
Mike Cherry, National Chair of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), said: “Small firms and the self-employed are coming up against unprecedented strain with the cost of doing business rising ever higher, and they were hoping for more on this from the Chancellor today.”
Cherry added: “On top of upcoming hikes in National Insurance contributions and dividends, small businesses are being hit by disruption to supply chains and increasing costs taking away working capital that businesses would use to grow, invest and create jobs.”
One of the major announcements in Sunak’s speech was that the Kickstart Scheme would be extended from its originally scheduled December 31 2021 end date to March 31 2022. The Kickstart Scheme sees the government provide funding for employers to create jobs for young people aged 16-24 on Universal Credit.
The extension of Kickstart comes just days after the government’s furlough scheme ended. The FSB said that Kickstart would help to clear some of the backlog of jobs, with over a million people estimated to have been on the furlough scheme before it ended, but added: “The scheme (Kickstart) is supposed to help 250,000 people into work, but is currently stuck at just 76,000.”
There were also criticisms that the end of furlough and the measures announced in the Chancellor’s speech would not be enough to fill shortages in skills and labour that have led to the UK’s current supply chain crisis.
The FSB’s Mike Cherry asserted: “The economy faces skills shortages and we need new schemes to help those furthest from work. More could be done to help this group to refresh their skills, or train to gain new ones. The Government should consider new tax reliefs and a national expansion of the Treasury’s self-employment skills pilot with FSB and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.”
