Small businesses across the UK will be deeply underwhelmed by yesterday’s Spring Statement.
At a time when many are on the brink of collapse, what was needed was urgent, targeted support. Instead, what they heard was largely silence.
From sole traders and home-based businesses to high street independents, the message we are receiving is clear, costs are rising, confidence is falling, and resilience is running out. Energy bills remain volatile, business rates continue to bite, and access to finance is tightening. For many, this is not about growth, it is about survival.
The Chancellor spoke about stability and long-term reform. But for the UK’s 5.5 million small and micro businesses, the crisis is immediate. Cashflow pressures cannot wait for long-term strategy documents.
We are particularly concerned about:
- The absence of meaningful business rates reform for small premises
- No clear plan to address the widening gap in support between SMEs and large corporates
- Continued invisibility of the self-employed and microbusiness sector in economic policy
Small businesses are not a side issue in the UK economy. They are the economy. They power local communities, create jobs, and provide vital services in every constituency.
If we lose them, we do not simply lose businesses, we lose local prosperity, community resilience, and future growth.
The government must now move quickly to:
- Deliver targeted rates relief for the smallest firms
- Improve access to affordable finance
- Ensure that self-employed people and microbusiness owners are fully recognised in policy design
- Work directly with representative bodies that genuinely speak for small firms
Warm words about growth are not enough. Without immediate intervention, many viable small businesses will not make it to see that growth.
This must be a turning point. Small businesses cannot continue to be expected to absorb shock after shock with little more than rhetoric in return.