UK Parliament / Open data

Finance Bill

Proceeding contribution from Richard Fuller (Conservative) in the House of Commons on Tuesday, 1 July 2014. It occurred during Debate on bills on Finance Bill.

My hon. Friend speaks from great experience and is, as usual, exactly on the point. For many small business people, the biggest constraint is time: they have to be the sales person, the accountant, the HR person and the form filler. The policy that has given rise to new clause 11 is supposed to be helping those people, but I think there are many other ways we can support our small businesses that would have a greater impact.

One of those is that the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills should lose its great focus on a grand industrial policy, centred on our large corporations, and start to show a bit of passion about our small businesses. I know that the Secretary of State is a good friend of the Treasury Bench—obviously, he is a member of it—but somehow we are not getting the focus and heart for our small businesses that we should be getting, and it would be good to hear that voice coming through louder and clearer.

I am drawn by Opposition Members’ eloquence on the questions they are raising about this policy. It did not occur to me at the start of our support for the policy that it was going to be a big policy that would have an impact on many businesses. I would be interested to hear an update from the Minister on where the policy is taking us and what our goals are when it comes to promoting employee shareholding. What are his concerns? Does he share my concern that, in trying to put together

promotion of employee shareholding and reductions in employee rights, we may be failing to make progress on two issues, rather than making progress on both?

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
583 cc828-9 
Session
2014-15
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Subjects
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