Most significant is the reduction in the number of such businesses since before the pandemic – a total of 1 in 12 private sector businesses lost to the economy.
What the data highlights is that the focus by the government on big business is very much misplaced: we remain a small business economy where most of what actually happens is delivered by micro and small businesses.
These businesses hardly get considered in policy discussions, however. Nor are they offered the protections that they need to trade fairly because successive governments have made no real effort to support small businesses, preferring instead to focus on the businesses that make political contributions and take on ex-MPs as NEDs..
And when ministers talk about entrepreneurs as if they are the leaders of big business, they are wrong. There is an
entrepreneurial group in our society - but they are running small enterprises.
This is in stark contrast to our near neighbours in Europe, where small regional businesses, in particular, are supported both legislatively and financially.
If the Prime Minister really wants to encourage the UK economy to grow, rather than straightening the deckchairs in Whitehall he should focus on the private business sector.
Noel Guilford
