Following my recent letter to Harlow Businesses in the New Year, last Thursday I held a surgery for local businesses in conjunction with Essex FSB and the Harlow Chamber of Commerce.
It was a good meeting, and invaluable for me to hear business concerns. Some of the main problems discussed were difficulties vis a vis the Inland Revenue, VAT, apprentices and encouraging young people to become entrepreneurs. There is also some upset that the East of England have been excluded from the Government Enterprise scheme for social tenants and also the National Insurance Holiday. With some other colleagues from the East of England, I am lobbying the Government about this: Just because the East of England is one of only two areas in the countries with a positive GDP, it does not mean that there are not towns and cities within the East, which have high levels of deprivation.
On the plus side, the Government is cutting corporation tax, providing 75,000 extra apprenticeships, allowing tenants in social housing to set up local businesses and removing red tape and unnecessary bureaucracy. Hopefully the forthcoming Budget will be one to incentivize and support small businesses in particular.
I will be holding regular surgeries with local businesses and will be feeding back the response from the Government.
by Robert Halfon - www.roberthalfon.blogspot.com
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