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Queen’s Speech

My Lords, there was little in the Queen’s Speech on legislation for business, but perhaps this is a good thing in one way as we do not want any more regulatory burdens to be placed on business, as has been said this afternoon. I hope that things will change but, in my 11 years in politics at the parliamentary level, I have come up against a brick wall. In what respect, you may ask? My working life has been in small business, latterly in manufacturing. Whenever I said that I thought that the City should look to invest more in production, specifically manufacturing, I was told, "No, we need to create wealth in the financial sector". One of the lessons to be learnt from the credit crunch is that we need to diversify. The Government need to intensify their actions to support business, in particular small business. We need a business-friendly approach. I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Sugar, on his maiden speech, which was to the point. He spoke about being an apprentice, which I accept; we all need to be apprentices and to learn. I am a great supporter of small businesses and business generally, but the noble Lord made the point that not all businesses are set to succeed automatically. I agree. That is why I very much believe that it is extremely important that the skills agenda should concentrate on training, management and management skills, which are often severely lacking in the business community. I also welcome what the noble Lord, Lord Martin, said, quite rightly, about apprenticeships. Returning to the issue of small business, in 2008 I introduced a Private Member’s Bill, the Retail Development Bill, which passed through this House. This Bill was designed to help local communities and local shops. I would have welcomed some acknowledgement in the Queen’s Speech of the importance of the small shops sector. As the Association of Convenience Stores said: ""more than 19,000 high street shops closed last year … what high streets need are policies on planning and business rates"." Those are just the points that my Bill addressed. Both the Association of Convenience Stores and the Federation of Small Businesses have identified business rates as a big area of concern. There is a need to address the disproportionate difference between the amount that small shops pay and the amount paid by the supermarkets. Why should small shops pay twice or more than supermarkets as a proportion of their turnover? We on these Benches have firm proposals to address inequity and I hope that the Government will consider doing the same. The Retail Development Bill which I introduced put an emphasis on enabling local communities to have a voice and a significant influence when supermarkets wished to expand. As most noble Lords will have noticed, great concern has recently been expressed in the press that various supermarket chains are expanding on the high street and elsewhere by means of their "metro" versions. That will to a great extent destroy the right of communities to choice, diversity and convenience, while also destroying the future of independent retailers on the high street and hitting local communities. A further concern of small businesses is the problems caused by late payment, an issued addressed by the Secretary of State some time ago. A recent FSB survey showed that one-third of small businesses are suffering from that problem. In that connection, I hope that the Government will continue to lead by example with prompt payment. Perhaps the Minister can update us on the matter of payments by Government and by local government to ensure that they are paying on the nail. Concern has been expressed by the Federation of Small Businesses and many shopkeepers about the suggested change in VAT—it may just be newspaper talk—on 1 January. If the Government intend to pursue this change in VAT, I should just like to make a point on behalf of the FSB and others that this is the busiest retail period for shops. There are the January sales as well as the accumulation of people and staff who have been on holiday during the Christmas period. If—it is a big if—the Government intend to change the VAT rate then, from the point of view of small shops, it would be much better for it to happen in February or even later in the year. The problem of unemployment is deeply affecting small businesses and there is great concern about the ineffectiveness of Jobcentre Plus. According to the FSB, less then 20 per cent of jobs for SMEs are advertised at Jobcentre Plus. It is key that small businesses are able to use this free advertising service, and it should be made user friendly. As the FSB and others have suggested, there should be a small business manager or someone with expertise in the small business sector to encourage that. I was interested in the contribution made by the noble Lord, Lord Cope, who is not in his place, on small businesses. He drew attention to the great proliferation of enforcement agencies dealing with the small business sector. He made the case for the idea of having a single business inspectorate rather than so many people following up on issues. Finally, some time has been spent today on the approach of the Opposition Benches to the economy. I am glad to say that we on these Benches subscribe to a positive view in relation to getting out of the recession. The somewhat negative approach of the Tory Benches is being roundly rejected. Perhaps I may also respectfully remind the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, that Mrs Thatcher was very good at unemployment as well.