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Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

I am delighted to tell the hon. Gentleman that that is total nonsense. He knows it, I know it and every other Member in the House knows it. Not once during the first 10 years of either of my businesses did I come near to investing £50,000 in a given year. As I said, the initial equity from our home financed the start-up, and growth thereafter was financed from retained profit. That is another aspect of the creation of small businesses that should be taken into account. However, even with a deliberate policy of controlled growth, we faced serious problems on many occasions: problems caused by customers going bust, by debtors not paying up—not just not in time, but sometimes not at all—and by clients pulling work unexpectedly. Those are all major blows to a new, small, growing, developing business, and they place massive demands on good cash-flow management. The fourth priority was to make friends with the bank. Had I not done so, the bank would not have been anywhere near as understanding as it was, and my business could have gone to the wall. However, I fear that today many banks are less compassionate. I know people who have tried to start small businesses and have found that aspect much more difficult. I was lucky: I made friends with my bank, which sustained us through some very difficult times. That is the reality of growing a small business. We faced risk, we faced hardship, we faced long hours, we faced sleepless nights; but we grew to a point at which we employed more than 220 people collectively. The Chancellor should be delighted with the work that we have done to service his income. We should be given a medal, but what do we get from him? Tragically, he kicks us where it hurts most, and where it hurts most small businesses—in our ability to manage good cash flow. What should the Chancellor have taken into account when he made his decisions on this Budget? He should have recognised that small businesses employ more than 12 million people—that is 58 per cent. of the private sector employment figure. He should have recognised that adding that figure to the UK’s medium-sized businesses shows that together they will create more than 2 million jobs in a 10-year cycle. When he looks at UK plc, he will recognise that they will, conversely, shed 1.5 million jobs in the same period. One might have thought that he would see small business creators as his heroes—the people whom he needs to nurture, reward and support—yet he adds to our problems. Why is that? I think that it is because he does not understand the small business sector, which creates jobs at a fraction of the cost wasted by the Government in their failed attempts to help it to do so. Listen to what my hon. Friend the Member for Hertford and Stortford (Mr. Prisk) says about how small business views small business services run by the Department of Trade and Industry. Look at the cost of business support, in which small business plays a part—a staggering £12 billion per year according to the Richard review on small business and Government. Look at the National Audit Office report of 2006, which was scathing about Government support services, comprising 3,000 schemes that the Government now say that they are going to cut down to 100. I could go on to talk about the lack of skills and poor educational training as regards supporting the workplace. The truth of the matter is that the Government have not been an outstanding success when it comes to small business, and small business is aware of that fact. Is it any wonder that they are not a greater success given that I go to the Library and find that so few Labour Members have had business experience? Is it any wonder that they do not understand business generally and small business in particular?