Over the past few years, Virtually Smart Ltd have written about the changing face of business & how our political climate has affected industry & business alike.

Since 2016’s EU referendum, we have seen ‘Brexit’ dates come & go with seeming regularity & watched our business landscape take the brunt of the uncertainty which has come with it.

We have explored how the UK High Street has been changed forever with more & more names collapsing under the weight of change in industry & political uncertainty. We’ve seen how monetary discrepancies have created swathes of job losses, with the most recent big brand name, Mothercare, admitting only in the last few days that their high street restructuring plan had failed & they are going into administration & that M&S have seen a further loss in their clothes sales this year.

With another ‘Brexit’ leave date having come & gone & our political leaders now shaping up for a December election; where will British business & more importantly the thousands of mid-size & small business owners benefit from the election campaigns & promises of the election party candidates? We have already heard about Labour wanting to recoup the taxes from the wealthy elite & entrepreneurs who evade taxation:

Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, set the tone of his election campaign on Thursday with a direct attack on “the privileged few” who benefit from a “corrupt system”, naming individual millionaires whom the UK opposition party wants to target. (1)

But what about the businesses owned & run by families, copreneurs, mid-size & small businesses who feel the pinch every time an election is called & are sadly all to often the victims of recessions?

Every time an election is called the priorities usually begin with the NHS, education, families, maybe the environment & the economy. However, the blanket commentaries about how each political party would boost the British economy with investment in UK businesses & creating trade deals abroad; doesn’t answer the questions many business owners have about how they will be protected in a post election UK.

One example of how British business owners struggle to keep going, is the challenge of business rates. Business rates are defined by the rateable value of the property in which your business is housed. Current Government guidelines dictate that:

You will not pay business rates on a property with a rateable value of £12,000 or less.
For properties with a rateable value of £12,001 to £15,000, the rate of relief will go down gradually from 100% to 0%.
If your rateable value is £13,500, you’ll get 50% off your bill. If your rateable value is £14,000, you’ll get 33% off.

However, despite the amount of relief for those with lower rateable values on their properties, what we are seeing is those mid to large sized businesses feeling the pinch of the excessive taxation on their business, when the consumers of the UK are not spending.

It is all very well for the current Government & the potential future Government to keep these rates at a seemingly sensible rate; but if the companies are unable to make enough profit due to the uncertainty in public spending, then no matter how much tax relief is given, it will not keep these businesses afloat.

Not only has there been a considerable slump in High Street sales & consumer spending in the mid range business platforms; but larger investment items like cars & houses have also seen the slump.

It is not secret that due to ‘Brexit’ uncertainty & the slowing down of purchasing in the automotive sector, the UK has seen Honda announce that it will be closing it’s Swindon branch from 2021 with the loss of generations of jobs. In addition, Jaguar Land Rover have this year announced they will be cutting 4500 jobs, Nissan are looking at cutting 10,000 jobs (globally) & each company has cited lack of public spending, Brexit uncertainty & EU changes in emissions laws as reasoning.

Therefore, with a back drop of an already unsteady & uncertain economy, with corporate & small businesses alike either not surviving the slump or having to make tactical infrastructure choices; a looming General Election will naturally add more pressure to the business owners of the UK. With ‘Brexit’ having already caused such uncertainty & with no end in sight for the stalemate; what will the future of the UK business landscape look like after the election & will British businesses boom or bust?

Written by Katy-Jane for & on behalf of Virtually Smart Ltd