This is the second annual Small Business Saturday UK. A similar campaign has been running in the United States for four years and has become a national movement backed by celebrities and politicians from Barack Obama to Serena Williams.
Last year, our shadow secretary of state for business, Chuka Umunna, worked with business groups, sponsors and politicians of all stripes to bring Small Business Saturday to these shores. It proved to be a great success and demonstrated how determined action can boost British business without significant costs to the public exchequer.
On the first Small Business Saturday in 2013, nearly £500m of additional trade was directed to British small businesses. Forty-eight per cent of all United Kingdom consumers were aware of the day, prompting over 1.5 million Facebook views and giving birth to the Twitter hashtag #SmallBizSatUK which trended in the top three all day. I’m sure this year will be an even bigger success.
As a former small internet retailer, I know that small business owners do not seek special favours, but simply a fair chance to access markets and customers.
Small Business Saturday can help to promote a more level playing field in just such a way. It encourages people to explore the stores on offer in their local area which they might not usually frequent, and increases awareness of the innovative independent products on offer.
Labour councils are helping with this process. Brent has offered local independents the chance to showcase their products on the council website and Waltham Forest is running a ‘Hidden Gems’ campaign which points local people to stores they might not have heard of.
Such campaigns should remind everyone that it is the small retailers who make our high streets diverse and viable, and it is in our social as well as economic interests to ensure they survive and thrive. This is why Labour are developing a suite of active policies to offer the small business community at the next election.
A Labour government will cut – then freeze – the business rate bills of 1.5 million small firms
A Labour government will end the scourge of late payments to small suppliers by requiring their large customers to automatically pay interest when they are overdue.
A Labour government will clamp down on unfair business practices, for example ending the ‘pay to stay’ contracts where large firms charge small businesses a fee just to get on their potential supplier list.
A Labour government will transform the UK lending market by growing a generation of local banks attuned to their local economies and with a mandate to ensure local small firms succeed.
A Labour government will devolve powers to local authorities so they can shape their local high streets and give independent retailers the space to grow.
So on Saturday let’s all remember the vital role small businesses play in our society and take the time to do our Christmas shopping somewhere a bit different. Let’s get behind Small Business Saturday.
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Toby Perkins MP is shadow minister for small business