It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Havant (Mr Mak) in this debate. Before I entered this place, I spent most of my career working in the private sector, and I draw Members’ attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I have worked with and for small businesses, including our family manufacturing business, which we started thanks to the enterprise allowance scheme.
It is estimated that there are 5.4 million small businesses in the UK, and that they account for 48% of UK private sector employment. In my constituency, small and medium-sized businesses are the backbone of our local economy. Newer companies such as SHS, which manufactures stainless steel handles, work alongside longer-established and often larger firms such as Whitehouse Cox and Phoenix, echoing the industrial heritage of the west midlands.
I want education, skills and business to drive our economy and a culture of encouragement that nurtures and develops aspiration, builds confidence and supports enterprise. From my own experience and from speaking to local businesses, I know we need a business framework that supports, not hinders, and that works to reduce red tape and Government bureaucracy. That is why I welcome the measures in the Bill.
One of the biggest challenges facing any business is cash flow. It has been reported that 59% of UK small and medium-sized businesses have been impacted negatively by late payments, and that the average small business is waiting for £31,000 of overdue payments, which is a lot of money. That can cause huge challenges to a business, as well as being a distraction, when all it wants to do is to get on with doing business. The introduction of a small business commissioner is therefore a very welcome move. It will boost the resilience of small businesses by helping with unfair late payments and poor contractual processes. I look forward to our being able fully to assess the contribution and effectiveness of the commissioner in due course. Perhaps the Minister will say how that will happen.
Red tape is another challenge: it can stifle and swamp a business through the volume and the complexity of it all. The previous coalition Government’s agenda delivered £10 billion of deregulatory savings during the last Parliament, and it makes absolute sense to continue to do that and to drive for greater deregulation by placing more bodies in the scope of deregulation.
There is much in the Bill to talk about and I do not have time to talk about it all, but I want to mention apprenticeships. Last week, I was able to host a meeting of local businesses, with my hon. Friend the Member for Stratford-on-Avon (Nadhim Zahawi). Sadly, he is not in his place at the moment. Since 2010, over 4,000 apprenticeships have been created in my constituency, which is allowing people to earn and learn, and to develop skills for the future of the workforce, our local businesses and the greater west midlands economy.
One of the messages I hear loud and clear is the need to focus on quantity and quality, so I welcome clause 21, which will protect the term “apprenticeship” in the same way that the term “degree” is protected in legislation. That will benefit apprentices, employers and training providers, and is a clear demonstration of the importance,
value and reputation of apprenticeships. Quality and reputation will equally be integral to that, and that should be embraced as a positive step. Apprenticeships should be a key part of developing key skills for today and for tomorrow, so that we can fill more jobs involving more skills locally and so that we can encourage local enterprise.
I am mindful of the clock ticking, so I will conclude by saying that there is much in the Bill to celebrate. It puts enterprise at the heart of this Government. I believe it demonstrates that this Government are backing business and that Britain is truly back in business.
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