I thank the Backbench Business Committee for securing this debate on an important topic. It is a topic that has featured frequently in my inbox and consistently at surgeries. I am sad that I follow my hon. Friend the Member for Buckingham (Greg Smith), because he has taken so many of the issues that I wanted to talk about in my speech. He, though, was very eloquent and said them in a far better way than I could do.
Early on in my career, I was engaged under a freelance contract, and before coming to this place I worked in a sector that used freelancers and self-employed talent, so I have a deep understanding of the issues that affect those who are self-employed. If someone works for themselves, their raison d’être to get up and go in the morning is to go out and find business—to work. When they cannot work because the Government have told them to stay at home and has locked them down, it is counter to everything they do. I represent Warrington South, an area in the north-west of England that has a particularly high level of self-employed people. More than 20% of the constituency work for themselves. It is an issue that has come to the forefront there.
As other hon. Members have done, I pay tribute to the Government for the support they have given to the 2.7 million people in this country who are self-employed, costing £7.7 billion. Self-employed people have been able to claim grants worth 80% of their average monthly trading profits, up to £2,500. It is without doubt one of the most generous schemes in the world.
I remember clearly, in late March, when we first went into lockdown, that the furlough scheme had just been announced and I took a call in my office from a gentleman called Stephen, a self-employed carpet fitter. He was incredibly concerned about his self-employed status and what it would mean for him. I remember being able to phone him back a few days later and give him the news that the Chancellor was launching a scheme to help people like him, and I remember the words he used: “Thank you, Chancellor.”
Sadly, I took a call on the same day from a couple who worked in the entertainment sector, Jo and John Martin. Jo books talent for cruise ships and John is a performer. They, too, were incredibly worried and the call I made back to them, thinking it would be positive, ended up not getting quite the same response, because the way
they had constructed their self-employed operation meant that they were not eligible for anything. Today, they still do not understand. They have paid every single tax that was due, on time, all the time, but have had nothing. That is the bit that confuses and frustrates many people.
I want us to look forward; I want to see a focus in the forthcoming Budget in November on ensuring that we do everything we possibly can to encourage businesses to start up and operate. We are providing significant cash incentives to businesses to take on people and paying them £1,000 to train them up. I hope we can look carefully at what we are doing for people who want to go out on their own and set up their own businesses. I want us to make sure we have mentor schemes in place. When someone launches their own business, stepping out on their own, without the ability to wrap a monthly salary around themselves, it is a difficult time. As a Government, we need to ensure that we are ready to support those people and give them every level of assistance to get the business up and running. We need people who work on freelance and self-employed contracts to be firing on all cylinders, ready to go, and I look forward to economic support targeted in a creative way in the autumn statement.