Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department plans to introduce additional support measures for businesses affected by increases in National Insurance Contributions in Eastbourne.

The Government has taken difficult but necessary decisions to fix the public finances and create the long-term stability in which businesses can invest and thrive.

The Government decided to protect the smallest businesses from the changes to employer National Insurance contributions (NICs) by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500. This means that this year, 865,000 employers will pay no NICs at all, and more than half of all employers will either gain or will see no change.

The Government has also taken a number of other steps to support businesses.

At the Spending Review, the Government increased the financial capacity of the British Business Bank to £25.6bn, which will enable a two-thirds increase in support for SMEs across the UK. This investment is expected to crowd in tens of billions of pounds of private capital and will support innovative businesses to start, scale, grow, and stay in the UK.

The Government is also continuing to take measures to tackle late payments, which severely impact the cash flow of small businesses. This year we will be laying requirements for large companies to include information about their payment performance in their Annual Reports and launched the Fair Payment Code. We will be launching a consultation on additional legislative measures to address late payments and long payment terms.

The Department for Business and Trade will, this year, be publishing its Small Business Strategy. This will set out how the Government will go further in delivering its manifesto commitments to support SMEs in areas such as access to finance, business support, late payments, regulation, access to markets, and revitalising High Streets.