Business rates are an outdated tax which threaten to bury our high streets and shops

Businesses have been through hell and back over the last two years. From on-off lockdowns, to a botched trade deal with the EU which failed almost every sector of our economy, the business community is suffering.

With the Omicron variant creating a new cloud of uncertainty that is hanging over our economy, businesses are facing a looming winter of discontent. Costs are spiralling, Christmas bookings are being cancelled, and inflation is strangling investment. Businesses need help, and they need it fast.

Ahead of Small Business Saturday this weekend, the Liberal Democrats are calling on the Government to immediately give small businesses the tax cut they deserve. This would mean over one million of Britain’s smallest businesses would see their taxes slashed by an average of £5,000 each. From the treasured high street shop to the dynamic tech entrepreneur, employers feeling the pinch could breathe a sigh of relief.

By quadrupling the Employment Allowance to £16,000, a small business could employ five people without paying a penny of national insurance contributions. That would mean thousands of pounds saved. This would boost confidence and investment, giving our economy the booster jab it so desperately needs. In my mind, that is the course of action any Government with a shred of pro-business credentials would do.

Yet instead, Boris Johnson’s Conservatives have shown utter disregard for small businesses. Their answer to small businesses’ woes is not to provide them with more support, but to hike their taxes. In the new year, the Conservative government will hit small businesses with an eye watering £2.5bn tax bombshell, by breaking their manifesto promise and raising National Insurance contributions.

As the Federation of Small Businesses has warned, this jobs tax threatens to seriously hamper our economic recovery.

It begs the question, what planet is Boris Johnson living on?

His vague promises of cutting taxes in two years’ time will fool nobody. Even if it did materialise, this would come too late for the many small businesses who face shutting up shop in the months ahead, on top of the half a million who have collapsed this year. And let’s not forget, we were already promised a wide-ranging reform to the grossly unfair business rates tax two years ago. This is another outdated tax which punishes high street shops. Just like the national insurance tax hike, the Conservatives’ business rates policy will be filed away as another manifesto promise not worth the paper it was written on.

I have heard from many business owners that Boris Johnson’s now infamous Peppa Pig speech at the CBI was an eye opener for them. It showed that this is a prime minister who doesn’t take the concerns of the business community seriously, and is more concerned with cracking jokes than solving problems. Yet for those who listen to him week in week out in the House of Commons, his scatter gun remarks didn’t come as a surprise. Nor were his empty words and broken promises.

The stark truth hitting home for many employers is that under Boris Johnson, the Conservatives have given up on being the party of businesses. Someone has to speak out for the small business owners and entrepreneurs who form the backbone of our economy. That starts with demanding a tax cut for small businesses right now, before it is too late.