16 March 2018

Spring Statement – opportunities for the industry

An upbeat Spring Statement from Chancellor Phillip Hammond was delivered this week. Here we outline the announcements likely to interest you, and give our early views on the Federation's opportunities to lobby Government over the coming months.

Referring to the Government as "the champions of small businesses and the entrepreneur" for our small and medium-sized members, two key consultations were announced:

Call for evidence on late payments

Late payments were your number one business concern when we asked you for your "Priorities for Print' last year. In fact, almost half (48%) of respondents to Printing Outlook reported that they had been obliged to accept longer payment terms from customers in 2017 in order to help retain or secure business. Although the Government has introduced the role of the Small Business Commissioner, and a new complaints process, it seems keen to do more. Responding to this consultation will be a significant lobbying project for the Federation in 2018, reflecting how important it is to you. If you have any information that would be useful – for example how late payments affect you and what should be done about it – please contact BPIF Public Affairs Adviser, Carys Davis, at [email protected]

Call for evidence on productivity

Recognising the UK lags behind many European countries when it comes to how productive we are, the Government has launched a practical-sounding Call for Evidence. The aim is to understand how best to support the UK's least productive businesses to enable them to learn from, and catch up with, the most productive. Again, we'll be coming to you for your experiences on increasing productivity, and obstacles to doing so, which we can feed in to Government.

Business rates revaluation

The Spring Statement also announced that the next business rates revaluation will take place in 2021, rather than 2022 as planned. This will mean that, now that revaluations will take place every three rather than five years, the three-year cycle will kick in a year earlier. The Government hopes that more frequent revaluations will alleviate pressure on business owners faced with rising rental costs and will help stop sharp increases in business rates bills, suffered by many of you last year, especially in the London region.

Support to attract apprentices

There was also £80m funding released to support small businesses to attract apprentices. This looks to be an increase in the funds available to support apprenticeship training at "non-levy" companies, where the Government pay 90% of the training costs, but the finer details have not been confirmed yet. As attracting apprentices – especially those of calibre – is an issue for many members, we remain keen to hear from you on what kind of practical support would encourage new apprentices through the doors and staying the course, and the challenges that you face in doing this.

Please contact BPIF Public Affairs Adviser Carys Davis with your views on any of the issues raised – [email protected] or 07854 950316