Priti Patel, Conservative Party Parliamentary Candidate for Witham and Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, has welcomed the publication of the Conservative Party's Small Business Manifesto.
The manifesto builds on the Conservatives' long-term economic plan, which has already successfully supported record numbers of new jobs and apprenticeships and has cut taxes and red tape for small businesses.
The Small Business Manifesto includes:
- A pledge to introduce a Small Business Act in the next Parliament
- Maintain the Employment Allowance until 2020 to cut the costs of national insurance contributions.
- Treble the number of start-up loans.
- Review business rates.
- Cut £10 billion of red tape costs.
- Help small businesses secure finance with the Help to Grow scheme, and
- Help the self-employed by commissioning an urgent review into the disadvantages they face in accessing mortgages and pensions.
A number of local Witham based businesses have also signed a letter commending the Conservatives' support for small businesses and warning of the risks of change undoing 'all the good work of the last 5 years.'
Priti, who has also chaired the All Party Parliamentary Small Shops Group, said: 'The Conservative Party has a strong record in Government supporting small businesses so they can grow, prosper and create jobs.
'We have cut their taxes when Labour planned to increased them, we have slashed red tape, made it easier for firms to employ people and take on apprenticeships, reduced the burden of national insurance contributions and have offered new discounts on their business rates.'
She added: 'Over 80% of local people are employed in small and medium-sized enterprises, which form the backbone of our local economy. The entrepreneurs who run those businesses work tremendously hard to grow their firms and have helped create many new jobs.
'A Conservative Government will continue to get behind these businesses and our Small Business Manifesto shows how we will carry on keeping their taxes down and cutting red tape.
'Ed Miliband and his plans to increase taxes and wreck the economy would put all of this at risk. This is why local businesses want to see a Conservative Government elected so we can continue to build on the success of the last five years.'
Mr Mark English, director of Witham-based Sorrel Ltd., said: 'It is extremely important to everyone in the country that the growth in business opportunities we are actually experiencing is maintained and this can only be guaranteed by re-electing the Conservative Party -- a party with a developed, balanced and proven long-term financial plan rather than divisive proposals to penalise businesses and the entrepreneurial spirit."