Highly significant in the context of the current economy is what the election will mean to the average SME. We’ve compiled a comparative summary of what a few of the leading parties propose on matters directly affecting SMEs. To see the effect of the election outcome on your SME see our helpful guide to what Britain’s most popular parties have to say.
Green Party | Liberal Democrats | Conservative Party | Labour Party | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Corporation Tax: | The party intend to increase corporation tax from 20% to 30%, yielding around £12 billion a year in a full year. Small firms would remain on 20%, however. | The Liberal Democrats state they will continue to reform business tax to ensure it stays competitive, and make small and medium-sized enterprises the priority for any business tax cuts. They also promise to work to adjust the tax system away from subsidy of high leverage debt, and tackle the bias against equity investment. | The conservative Party pledge to give ‘businesses the most competitive taxes of any major economy’ and keep it at its current level. | Instead of cutting Corporation Tax again for the largest firms, Labour plans to cut, and then freeze business rates for over 1.5 million smaller business properties. They also intend to maintain the most competitive corporate tax rates in the G7. |
Business Rates: | The party plans to make preparations to replace the Uniform Business Rate with a system of Land Value Tax. | The party intends to double small business rate relief for a further year (to 31 March 2016) to provide support for 575,000 of the smallest businesses, and ensure 385,000 small businesses pay no rates at all. They also plan on capping the rise in the business rates multiplier at 2 per cent to benefit all businesses. On top of this, the party plans to extend transitional rate relief to support 16,000 small businesses facing significant bill increases due to the ending of transitional rate relief. | The Conservatives promise to conduct a ‘major’ review of business rates, and have asserted themselves as a ‘pro-business’ party. | The Labour party aims to cut then freeze business rates for more than 1.5 million small business properties. |
Minimum Wage: | The Green Party hope to increase the minimum wage so that it becomes a living wage. They propose a minimum wage target for everyone who is working in the UK of £10 per hour by 2020. In 2015 this would mean a minimum wage of £8.10 an hour generally (and £9.40 in London). | The Liberal Democrats intend to establish an independent review to consult on how to set a fair Living Wage across all sectors. They will pay this Living Wage in all central government departments and their agencies from April 2016. | The Conservative Party plan to raise the current minimum wage to £6.70 in October 2015, which equates to £12, 194 on a 35 hr week. They intend for it to reach £8 an hour by the end of the decade. | The Labour Party aims to increase the National Minimum Wage to more than £8 an hour by October 2019, and to introduce Make Work Pay contracts to provide tax rebates to firms becoming Living Wage employers. |
Zero Hour Contracts: | The party plan to put an end to zero-hours contracts. | The Liberal Democrats believe that flexible employment contracts – including zero hours contracts – can work well for employees and businesses. But they have voiced the fact that they understand it is not always the case, and promise to continue to stamp out abuse of these contracts. They state that they will create a formal right to request a fixed contract and consult on introducing a right to make regular patterns of work contractual after a period of time. | The party plans to outlaw zero-hours contracts. | The party intend to ban zero-hours contracts. |
Transport Cards: | The Green Party aim to prioritise affordable local public transport and make it accessible to all, including those with disabilities. They also plan to extend free local public transport to young people and students, costing around £4 billion a year. | No mention. | The party vow to support a fairer deal for taxpayers and commuters: keeping commuter rail fares frozen in real terms for the whole of the next Parliament. They also promise to introduce smart ticketing and part-time season tickets, and require train companies to improve compensation arrangements for passengers when trains are more than a few minutes late. | The party state that they will freeze rail fares next year to help commuters while they implement reforms. A strict fare rise cap will be introduced on every route for any future fare rises, and a new legal right for passengers will be created to access the cheapest ticket for their journey. |
Energy Bills: | The Green Party plan to establish mandatory standards for commercial building performance, such as ISO 5001. They will also ensure that consumer energy tariffs are progressive, so small consumers pay less per unit than larger ones, and that special needs are recognised. | The Liberal Party state that they will make saving energy a top infrastructure priority. They also intend to stimulate private sector demand with their new Electricity Demand Reduction market, new market-shaping energy efficiency standards, support for industry (particularly SMEs), and a programme of tax incentives and public investment. | No mention. | The Labour Party have promised to freeze energy bills until 2017, and give the regulator the power to cut bills this winter. |
Broadband Speed: | The Green Party promise to issue BT and other public telecommunications operators with the obligation of providing affordable, high-speed, broadband-capable infrastructure to every small business. | The Liberal Party intend to complete the rollout of high-speed broadband, to reach almost every household (99.9%) in the UK, as well as small businesses in both rural and urban areas. | The Conservative Party will secure the delivery of superfast broadband in urban and rural areas to provide coverage to 95 percent of the UK by the end of 2017, and will ensure no one is left behind by subsidising the cost of installing superfast capable satellite services in the very hardest to reach areas. They will also release more spectrum from public sector use to allow greater private sector access. And they have set an ambition that ultrafast broadband should be available to nearly all UK premises as soon as possible. | Labour will ensure that all parts of the country benefit from affordable, high-speed broadband by the end of the Parliament. They will work with the industry and the regulator to maximise private sector investment and deliver the mobile infrastructure needed to extend coverage and reduce ‘not spots’, including those in areas of market failure. |
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