Business planning

MPs recommend measures to make everyday entrepreneurs? the focus of policy

A group of MPs have published a report containing a range of recommendations that would provide further support to so-called everyday entrepreneurs.

Released by the All Party Parliamentary Small Shops Group (APPSSG), the report concluded that the social impact of community-based small business owners like grocers, newsagents, booksellers and hairdressers often goes undervalued by policymakers in Westminster.

The APPSSG blamed the popular narrative surrounding entrepreneurship as the reason these sorts of businesses are frequently ignored. The view, purported by government and the media alike, associating entrepreneurs with high-risk, high-tech startups, does not reflect the UK reality.

The report read: It is the everyday entrepreneurs that are the backbone of the UK economy, those business people who serve their local communitiesday in and day out.

it’s the pint of milk from the local shop, the haircut from the local barbers and the coffeefrom the local caf. Individually these local business entrepreneurs are small but their collective contribution tothe economy and local communities consistently maintains significance.”

The APPSSG encouraged local councils to use recently renewed business rate powers to incentivise investment in responsible, community-focussed businesses. According to the report, just 39 out of 326 local authorities in Britain currently offer discretionary rate relief to local small firms.

The group also suggested the establishment of a new government-led mentoring scheme between schools and successful local businesses, more thorough financial education for children and better engagement by local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) and growth hubs with their local communities.