SMEs & Localism

True Blue Conservatives strongly believe that free markets and the private sector led by Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) has been the greatest contributor to economic wellbeing and has lifted millions of people out of poverty, enabling and empowering them to achieve their middle class aspirations and to enjoy a better quality of life.

We are admirers of the German Mittelstand and Italy’s local cluster manufacturing. We believe that small businesses and particularly family-owned businesses generate generational pride and continuity, long-term focus, independence and innovation, agility, nimbleness, on-going investment in the local workforce, flexibility, lean hierarchies, better productivity gains, more particular customer focus and a sense of social responsibility with strong inter-community trust and regional ties.

A UK government website lends support this view: “The private sector is the engine of economic growth – creating jobs, increasing trade, providing goods and services to the poor and generating tax revenue to fund basic public services such as health and education

SMEs are crucial to the future of work, not just for employment creation and economic growth, but also to drive innovation and competition in markets and to work alongside large enterprises who are more able to invest more in skills, apprenticeships and training.

Within the context of the local businesses and local communities we strong advocate Public-Private Partnerships where businesses are encouraged to lead in research and development partnerships, knowledge-sharing platforms, technology and skills transfer and infrastructure investment which have the potential to kick-start development, enable productivity gains, generate better quality jobs, strengthen skills and promote technological advances – supported by government policies and incentives.

We are unashamedly pro-business. Businesses understand that to be competitive only those who are fit, nimble and better able to adapt to changing circumstances will survive. Market forces naturally lead to new thinking and innovative approaches to the challenges and opportunities presented by the changing new economy.

We firmly advocate replacing welfare with workfare. The private sector is the fundamental source of economic growth and a reduction in the welfare state as more people are motivated and incentivised to care for themselves and fulfil their aspirations through working, their own initiative and genius for enterprise and industriousness.

We believe jobs created by the private sector and SMEs are the ultimate definition of the dignity of men and women in being able to look after themselves and their families. We firmly advocate creating such local jobs in towns and counties across our country and particularly in the north so that communities can thrive, prosper and flourish.

In recent years SMEs and the private sector have been downplayed as a critical part of the UK’s national and local economic growth. Small-Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) account for 60 to 70 per cent of jobs in most OECD countries and account for a disproportionately large share of new jobs.

We recognise that words and sentiments are not enough. We believe that government can play a crucial role in encouraging and supporting the charge for regional economic dynamism by spurring incentives and fiscal support for local economic growth. We do not believe government should champion any particular sector or show favouritism to certain sectors over the others.

Where the state-driven central planners say ‘Government must’ get involved in the provisions of public services and the running of businesses, True Blue Conservatives say ‘Government must not’. In the UK and across the world it has been demonstrated that state run enterprises are more inefficient, less agile, less flexible, less responsive, more strike prone which gives rise to militancy and much less competent in providing services.

Businesses are best determined and run by businesses that make up the private sector.

Small businesses are important because they provide opportunities for entrepreneurs and create meaningful jobs with greater job satisfaction than positions with larger, traditional companies. Local SMEs foster local economies, keeping money close to home and supporting neighbourhoods and communities. Local businesses are more than an aggregate sum of money making enterprises, they enhance the local way and quality of life through:

· Innovation and growth
· Creating jobs locally
· Keeping money in local communities and bolstering the local economy
· Fostering a shared community identity
· Empowering diversity in business ownership for women and minorities
· Reducing carbon emissions
· Growing the middle class
· Increases home values and inter-generational wealth
· Better serving needs of the local community

SMEs constantly face crucial challenges in the early stage of business growth as they are confronted with high borrowing rates and credit rationing due to inadequate collateral. We strongly advocate the American-style local community banks – local banks that deal with local businesses understand the businesses and on-going risks and challenges faced by the clients rather than the head office ‘bureaucrats’ of large national banks.

We believe that despite differing political persuasions national and local governments collaborating together can play a leading role in encouraging platforms for more accessible and affordable SME financing like helping private equity markets to better understand local business investments and risks, which has the potential of improved access to venture capital for start-ups and SMEs, perhaps underwritten by the British Business Bank.

As True Blue Conservatives we strongly advocate smart and limited regulations and for the government to be a real and reliable friend of small businesses. Regulatory burdens remain a major obstacle for SMEs. Access to information about regulations should be made available to SMEs at minimum cost. We believe there should be a simplified tendering process for local contracts up to the value of £50 million that prefers local businesses owned by local people over large conglomerates.

To support local businesses – SMEs and start-ups – policy makers must ensure that the compliance procedures associated with for example research and development and new technologies, are not unnecessarily costly, complex or lengthy.

Transparency is of particular importance to SMEs and we urgently must have in place information technology to narrow the information gap within a “one-stop-shop system”, where all the necessary information which affects firm strategies and decisions is made available in one place. Singapore and the Scandinavian countries are leaders of online simplification and accessibility and the UK should put in place best practices learned from these countries. It is our view that if any approach takes more than 7-10 essential steps, we are over complicating ways local businesses should be conducted.

Private sector growth is a key contributor to alleviating poverty and creating wealth and wellbeing in the local economy. The government should champion the private sector with meaningful incentives and policies to enable the private sector to be the engine of economic growth and jobs creation which leads to the reduction of inequality.

Our firm belief in Swiss Canton-style participatory democracy of local people being more directly involved in making decisions for themselves and their communities and empowering local businesses is a key part of localism: local businesses and local power for local people.

We do not believe that Westminster and Whitehall are the best institutions to determine how and where the private sector can thrive across the United Kingdom. Localism will struggle to succeed so long as Whitehall powers remain in the hands of Ministers

The essence of true conservatism is that we trust the people.

True Blue Conservatives strongly support localism in empowering local businesses and people through reform of the way communities are governed and local decisions are made and making local businesses and people further aware of the powers they can exercise collectively in local decisions through direct democracy.

True Blue Conservatives have an ambitious agenda to put power into the hands of the people across communities in the United Kingdom. Margaret Thatcher put her trust in the people to create a dynamic and entrepreneurial economy. Small c’s and big ‘C’ conservatives believe that loyalty to community and nation helps people realise their levelling-up and aspirational potential through forming strong bonds and attachments to others.

At a national level we depend on our Union, our Constitution, our Monarchy, our Armed Forces and our National Health Service. Localism recognises that our communities also depend on a patchwork of interlocking institutions: schools and colleges, parish councils, resident associations, charities, churches and other faith groups, post offices, family businesses, pubs and sports clubs.

At a local level the unwarranted housebuilding and urban planning expansion has caused decimation of village life where overzealous development with inadequate investment in infrastructure is causing mayhem and the local post office, village shop, pub or garage can’t compete with the ‘big boys’ who have demonstrated little interest in understanding or enhancing rural life. Our hamlets and villages, farmland and rural areas reflect our very Britishness and need to be protected against an overzealous planning expansion.

We are not against new homes being built in brownfield sites with the necessary and sustainable planning and infrastructure in place before any house building begins. We call for these developments to be contained within a self-sustaining village lifestyle concept of having a church, schools, defined recreational areas, a pub, village shops, a post office, health centres together with other adequate amenities and facilities and not just be monolith soulless and charmless housing estates without any character.

British village life is quintessential and must not only be preserved but also promoted in new urbanizing communities. We do not want mere new housing estates and developments rushing towards targets but a more thoughtful, sustainable and charming new villages which brings together community life and a shared identity.

Our farmers are the lifeblood of our country. They constitute the most significant economic activity and land management in our heartlands. We need to support farmers and the farming industry as they play a pivotal part in village and rural life.

At a very local level, localism also promotes “shopping local” – prioritising one’s local area or region typically by patronising locally sourced goods and locally owned businesses. Localism can promote business innovation and sustainability by promoting ‘go green by going local’ to reduce carbon footprints and refocus local shopping on the quality of local fresh produce.