Comments by Stuart Miller, CEO of ByBox and Chairman of the Small Business Charter
It’s great to see that small businesses were firmly on the chancellor’s agenda in today’s Budget, with 600,000 small businesses no longer paying business rates and a further 250,000 paying a reduced rate. Yet, despite the changes made in corporation tax, there is an entire community of start-ups which seems to have been passed over: the tech entrepreneurs.
I have the utmost respect for all small businesses, but it is disappointing to see that the inventors of the country seem to be out of sight and out of mind for the government. It is actually the top one per cent of entrepreneurs which create 40 per cent of new jobs in the UK, and this one per cent comes from the pioneering technology companies, which develop and build their products here in the UK and sell internationally. The capping of the losses tax relief at 50 per cent may be valuable for some businesses, but for inventors it is a huge restriction, as most tech companies make losses before profits.
The government needs to support these inventors to help them achieve rapid growth. In order to give them the best possible chance of success we need to work with initiatives like the Small Business Charter to galvanise the relationship between entrepreneurs and business schools. Rather than focusing on taxes, the government needs to be more forward thinking in its approach and nurture and support small businesses into success, that will ultimately drive the UK economy forward.