2021 Manifesto FINAL DRAFT - Flipbook - Page 27
Economy
everything from sales, marketing
and customer service to longterm and ongoing access to
personal advisers to help to
increase exports and assistance
to get business plans into shape
and analyse how robust and
realistic they are.
We also need to look very
carefully indeed at Business Rates
and supplemental levies for new
and small businesses. Taxing
these small businesses out of
business will be totally counterproductive.
Finally, we need to help SMEs and
co-ops to make their voices heard
more clearly. The mayor needs to
help make concerns about
unnecessary red tape heard at the
highest levels of government. But
first we need to get our own
house in order and see an SME
representative on the WMCA
board.
Untapped potential
The number of women and people
from BAME communities starting
up businesses needs to grow
substantially. Levels of enterprise
in our least well-off areas are also
well below where we need them
to be. This means that we have a
huge untapped resource and that
there are legions of entrepreneurs
and innovators who have yet to
unleash their creativity. Our
economy and society is far poorer
because of it.
Women and those living in our
least well-off areas have borne
the brunt of austerity cuts, and
rates of employment in BAME
areas remain unacceptably high.
If we want to see a more socially
just and equal society, we have to
use this resource better.
Many people can’t start up their
own enterprises simply because
they lack the capital to do so.
Most small businesses are funded
by friends and family, and if you
don’t have connections with
available cash, getting a company
up and running is very challenging
indeed. Banks are not set up to
help small businesses and
securing a loan against your
home rightly puts many off.